Having immigration staff doubling up as investigators and victim support was identified as problematic in two reports. Photo: RNZ
A police-led unit is needed to counter people trafficking, combat transnational crime and support victims, Immigration New Zealand (INZ) investigators say.
Briefings show warnings from staff who put two bids forward to step up work against people trafficking in 2022 and 2023.
"People trafficking will continue unabated in New Zealand and may even increase over time," one said in a section on the risks of inaction.
"This will also impact our ability to detect other related criminal activity.
"Victims will stay locked into situations of exploitation, offenders see that there is no consequence for their actions. New Zealand's reputation will be impacted - we have already been criticised internationally for our limited anti-trafficking efforts."
The documents also revealed the extent of one trafficking case in which 13 people gave evidence, but more than 100 were victims.
INZ investigations manager Carl Knight told RNZ up to 150 victims were uncovered in the long-running investigation into Hawkes Bay man Joseph Auga Matamata.
"We estimate conservatively between 100 and 150 people were subject to most definitely exploitation, but most probably trafficking. This case was at the most extreme end of anything that we've ever encountered here.
"At any one time we've only got between 30 or 40 investigators across the country and at different points there was between four and 12 investigators working on this job alone - witness management, victim management, cross-border, you've got cultural differences, you've got political influence. And so we're constantly learning, we're in our infancy in New Zealand in terms of investigating and prosecuting trafficking in persons."
Having staff doubling up as investigators and victim support was identified as problematic in two reports, sourced under the Official Information Act.
They show officials twice put in bids for a specialist unit, including a national reporting mechanism (NRM) for trafficking, in the five years since Matamata was jailed - one of only two convictions in New Zealand. It is still the most recent prosecution, and only one of four.
The government last month moved to strengthen laws on trafficking.
"Ultimately, it is not sustainable or efficient for INZ to be required to engage in urgent operational negotiations with NZP when reacting to a potential investigation (TiP or otherwise).
A joint specialised unit sitting within NZP would allow for focus on the investigation and operationalisation of a response, not negotiating on what the response should be.
"The lack of specialist units and specialist operational personnel within agencies means that the Operations Group is not able to progress the identification and support of victims, nor progress investigations and prosecutions."
'Ad hoc' response
The reports signal that police and immigration work together overseas - a point echoed by Knight, who say the other Migration 5 and Border 5 countries of Canada, the US, Australia and the UK (M5/B5) have specialist investigators.
"It's simply become a funding issue for us and resourcing. Unfortunately, there's no dedicated resource or investigative resource looking at trafficking. It's on an ad-hoc basis. We believe that aligning ourselves to our M5, B5 partners - on an obviously smaller scale - is the only way to address it from a multi-agency perspective, led by New Zealand police."
Knight acknowledged staff were only finding a 'tiny fraction' of the trafficking in persons (TiP) taking place. Forced marriage had become more prevalent, but was particularly hard to identify.
He led a pilot in the past two years, looking at the creation of a National Referral Mechanism (NRM), agency collaborations and training investigators and was confident that opportunities to improve and collaborate better would be seen in the next few months.
"We've got a bit of an ad-hoc referral mechanism at the moment where, we speak with the police and that, but there's nothing solidified or established or that would give us the ability to have a really professional or cohesive approach to looking at trafficking in general. It has to be multi-agency.
"We just know that we are so siloed that we're not going to make any progress until we are sort of pushed together. And I know that there's a will from those at the front line. Our staff are so keen to to get into this and actually make a difference.
"Trafficking is part of transnational organised crime and we believe that we can work a lot better together and and address not only TiP, but the transnational organised crime offending that's infiltrating and spreading.
"There's a significant amount of stuff that we're just not seeing because we're not coordinated. We are really poor at responding because it's so ad hoc and it's cumbersome, it's not cohesive. It's a hidden crime, and it's hidden by its nature, obviously."
The Ministerial Advisory Group on Transnational, Serious and Organised Crime (TNOC) last month also pointed to a 'lack of cohesion' and siloes. It recommended a minister who could deliver an organised crime response.
It noted that while the 2020-2025 TNOC strategy called for New Zealand to be the hardest place for such crime networks to operate, methamphetamine use, fraud and migrant exploitation had never been higher. "Some staff in agencies have observed to us that they spend more time writing plans than seeing them through, due to constantly shifting priorities."
The bids for funding highlighted that no prosecutions had taken place in some high-profile alleged trafficking cases, such as when child circus acrobats were taken into care by Oranga Tamariki.
The lack of a way of identifying and supporting victims of trafficking was one of the key reasons New Zealand has been on a second tier of America's global list of trafficking in persons countries since 2021. "An environment where trafficking can take place is being cultivated," said the INZ internal document.
Best practice would see specialist investigators working on sexual exploitation, forced criminality, organ trafficking and child trafficking.
Victims were either remaining in their trafficking situation or being punished for it, for example through deportation or being forced into crime by their traffickers, and then jailed, said its report..
"Identification is dependent on a criminal investigation, meaning those whose case is not investigated are also not being identified and supported. The lack of identification system means we are not collecting useful data. There is no system for delivering support to victims; support is provided ad-hoc as part of an investigation.
"INZ as an agency is responsible for responding to cases of cross-border people trafficking. In the current state, it is not able to fulfil its responsibilities."
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