Ten migrants who scammed thousands of dollars for visas have been stopped at the border and turned back, and nearly 200 others have been ordered not to come to New Zealand. The migrants were promised jobs with several employers who are currently under investigation for the mistreatment of 115 migrant workers from India and Bangladesh. It's been two weeks since Accredited Work Visa (AEWV) workers were found living in crowded and unsanitary conditions in six Auckland homes, claiming they had had no income for years . Their experience is the latest in a series of revelations that migrants pay thousands of dollars for visas and jobs in Aotearoa, then arrive with little or no work. Immigration New Zealand (INZ) said it had contacted 193 people whose visas were linked to the employer under investigation and advised them not to travel to New Zealand at this time. INZ national borders director Peter Elms said they would update the migrants within a week, outlining options they could consider. Immigration Minister Andrew Little revealed on Saturday that about 400 visas had been issued to five or six employers under investigation over Indian and Bangladeshi migrants. He said 10 workers have been turned away at the border in the past two weeks. Lawyer Mandeep Singh Bela said migrants who were turned away on arrival and those who were ordered not to come were in a difficult situation. “Really sad obviously, because some of them have already paid the money to those agents, they won’t have anywhere to recover [the] money, at the same time, because the jobs don’t exist. It’s also very difficult for them to come here and not have any jobs,” he said. Bela said most of the workers’ visas are tied to labour-hire companies, which recruit workers and contract them out. Many workers paid agents in various countries linked to employers in New Zealand, he said. Bela said he knew the workers were from Qatar, India, Singapore and Dubai. Meanwhile, INZ said that as of August 18 it had begun working to identify businesses that were allowed to bring in 30 or more migrant workers - but insisted it was not about 'an audit. maths'. INZ deputy director of immigration Simon Sanders said the aim was to understand how many employers were looking for large numbers of migrant workers and what type of business they were in.

Questions over labour-hire company oversight

Some experts worry that the labor recruitment sector is a high-risk area for migrants and is being neglected. INZ data shows that under the AEWV program there are currently 186 large-scale triangle employers in New Zealand, most of which are labor recruitment companies. Between the 2017/2018 and 2021/2022 financial years, the number of labor hire companies authorized to hire migrants should not exceed 33. Immigration consultant Katy Armstrong said it's no coincidence that the rise of labor hire companies comes at a time when certification testing is more relaxed than ever. “I have personally seen evidence that labour-hire companies have oversubscribed, they’ve seen an opportunity, they’ve mushroomed. There’s middle fees going on and there’s no work to sustain them. “And because Immigration’s not checking the sustainability aspect of the jobs as they would’ve done in the past, you’ve just got this complete perfect storm and recipe for disaster,” she said. Currently, there is no limit on the number of migrant workers an accredited labor hire company can recruit, nor on the number of positions a job ticket can cover – as long as it is the same type of position in the same location. Armstrong says that for migrants, being tied to a single employer creates vulnerabilities, but being tied to a single employer creates vulnerabilities. creates “double jeopardy,” because jobs can be speculative.