The Catholic Church in Papua New Guinea has turned housing developer in an effort to provide homes for migrant workers. In exchange, the local community will get voluntary help such as cleaning hospitals. The Saint John XXIII housing project is in the town of Kokopo, capital of East New Britain province. Although Kokopo’s population is Read more
Newsroom reports that last year three priests laid a complaint with the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) about the way a North Island organisation is using the Religious Worker Category (RWC) visa. The priests allege some religious organisations are using RWC visas to bring migrants to New Zealand for ulterior motives. The allegations are contained in Read more
“Can you be the Prime Minister who would be bold enough to change your immigration laws so that Samoans can enter your country freely without requiring visas, which cost money most of our poor people don’t have?” This was the question Mata’afa Keni Lesa put to the New Zealand prime minister in his opinion piece Read more
Joanne (not her real name) has been living and working in a home on Rarotonga for the last six months. (This feature story is was first published by the Cook Islands News.) She gets up at 6.30am every morning to prepare breakfast for her employer’s children, sets out their clothes, makes their lunches and then Read more
Stories of migrant workers being exploited, with some paid as little as $8 an hour, have been revealed in a new report from Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand. Report author Cathy Bi said the story that struck her the most was of a girl who worked a shift at a restaurant, but was not paid because her Read more
A large portion of the migrant workers rebuilding Christchurch are from the Philippines Many Filipinos are devout Roman Catholics and some found the colourful building site language demeaning and sacrilegious. “We’ve heard of Filipino workers walking off a work site, sometimes in groups, because the swearing and shouting got too much, so it’s something to Read more
Over 37 years-ago when Annunciation House – a sanctuary and home of hospitality that has served over 100,000 refugees, homeless poor and undocumented workers – was started in El Paso, Texas, founding director Ruben Garcia and a few friends wanted to place themselves among the poor, to see where the poor would lead them. He Read more
The grand mufti of Saudi Arabia has called for the destruction of all churches in the Arabian Peninsula, claiming that the move is in line with Islamic law. Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah, told a delegation from Kuwait last week that it was “necessary to destroy all the churches of the region”. The sheikh is Read more
The 10th annual New Zealand Diversity Forum will be held in Christchurch 24 $ 25 August The forum’s theme is Migrant and refugee employment. Valuing diversity is a key issue, given the rebuild being undertaken in the Canterbury region and increased recruitment of migrant workers to help drive the rebuild. The forum will include a Read more
The Government has announced it will ease back on the enforcing of the Easter trading laws. Active monitoring of Easter trading law breaches may be scrapped in favour of giving labour inspectors more time to investigate migrant worker exploitation. Labour Minister Simon Bridges has signalled that in the future officials may rely solely on complaints because Read more