It was ordered to repay the worker $8000 and put on a "stand-down" list preventing it from hiring migrant labour for six months.

The sad truth is that it's not an isolated instance of labour exploitation.

One of the most notorious cases hit headlines last year when Hastings-based Joseph Matamata was found guilty of 10 charges of people trafficking and 13 charges of dealing in slaves between 1994 and 2019.

The victims were forced to work on orchards and do other jobs but never paid for their labour.

The court found Matamata enslaved people through violence and intimidation. He kept their passports and restricted their movements.

It's among four trafficking prosecutions taken since 2009, involving a total of 51 victims.

"These numbers likely only reflect the tip of the iceberg," according to Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety Michael Wood.

In March, the minister released a five-year plan to combat modern slavery - the term coined to describe the rise of forced labour in today's economy.

The plan comes with a $50 million budget and a pledge to look at new laws. Harsher penalties for offenders are also in the pipeline. But there's pressure on the government to pick up the pace and introduce a Modern Slavery Act, following moves in other countries.

Global slave trade

More than 40 million people are estimated to be trapped in slavery, according to the Global Slavery Index 2018. Nearly two-thirds are in the Asia-Pacific region.

Mounting evidence of forced labour has led to renewed calls for companies to shoulder more responsibility for their supply chains and the people making their products.

In 2015, the UK introduced a Modern Slavery Act. It requires companies earning more than £36 million ($NZ70m) a year to report annually on the steps taken to ensure their products aren't produced by slave labour.

Three years later, Australia passed its own Modern Slavery Act. The law means companies earning more than $A100 million ($NZ107m) must publish "modern slavery statements" setting out what they're doing to address forced labour risks.

This law also applies to New Zealand companies that trade in Australia. To date, 23 New Zealand businesses - including Contact Energy and New Zealand Post - have published modern slavery statements.

Chapman Tripp partner Nicola Swan believes several hundred New Zealand businesses could be affected either being required to produce their own statements or to report on slave labour risks to Australian parent companies. Continue reading

The Catholic Diocese of Westminster's Caritas Bakhita House enabled the traffickers' 20-year old victim to report their crimes to the police.

The traffickers were sentenced to prison terms of 15 and 16 years.

Their victim's nightmare began when she arrived in the U.K. from Romania in April 2019 to take up a factory job.

However, the traffickers forced her to work on the streets of London as a prostitute instead, even after she became pregnant.

She then acquired a mobile phone, which she used to phone her family. They alerted the Romanian police, who contacted their U.K. counterparts.

The Metropolitan Police, which is responsible for law enforcement in the Greater London area, rescued the young woman and took her to the Caritas Bakhita House.

She was seven months pregnant.

According to the Westminster diocese's website, Caritas Bakhita House has helped the woman access medical support, registered her with a midwife, helped he get new prescription glasses and provided her with clothing and toiletries.

Other assistance given to the woman includes English classes and budgeting lessons.

Working with the police and U.S.-based NGO the International Justice Mission,Caritas Bakhita House helped the woman to fulfill her wish to give birth to her baby back home in Romania.

The International Justice Mission collected her from the airport in Romania, reunited her with her family, and is continuing to offer her care and support.

After the two traffickers were sentenced, Detective Inspector Grant Anderson, from the Metropolitan Police's Modern Slavery and Child Sexual Exploitation Unit, said:

"This was an awful crime which subjected a vulnerable young woman to a hideous way of life. We know she will never forget her time in captivity but I can report she gave birth to a healthy baby boy."

"I hope she now has some closure after knowing these men will be behind bars for a long time."

"We are committed to bringing these offenders to justice and will continue to work with local and overseas partners to do this."

The International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates 24.9 million people worldwide are trapped in forced labour, with 4.8 million suffering sexual exploitation. Women and girls account for 99 per cent of victims in the commercial sex industry, according to the ILO.

In 2019, the Vatican released an online guide seeking to combat the "ugly business" of human trafficking, which generates an estimated $150 billion a year.

Caritas Bakhita House is a Catholic safe house named after St. Josephine Bakhita, the patron saint of trafficking survivors.

Source

Catholic News Agency

Image: MintPress News

Mussie Zerai was nominated for a Nobel prize in 2015 for his compassion to refugees.

For tens of thousands of desperate migrants, his cellphone number has meant the difference between life and death as their boats founder. He has been the lifeline who has relayed calls from refugees in distress to the Italian Coast Guard.

But as the public mood in Italy turns against migrants from Africa and the Mideast, he finds himself being investigated. Read more

The conference was attended by representatives from ANZRATH (Aotearoa New Zealand Religious against Trafficking in Humans)

ANZRATH is a group made up of New Zealand religious from a variety of congregations based in Auckland

Sister Gemma Wilson who is a member of ANZRATH and attended conference says ANZRATH is trying to raise awareness of humane Trafficking and to address some the issues involved.

Some possible trafficking offences in New Zealand discussed at the conference included:

• Strong anecdotal evidence of underage street prostitution in Auckland and other cities
• Last year a survey of NZ brothels revealed that 5% of the sex workers had had their passports taken from them.
• There are many internet sites depicting violent sexual abuse against children and though these are not New Zealand children, the sites are accessed by up to 50,000 New Zealanders each day.
• There is growing evidence that the exploitation of migrant workers is still quite common in New Zealand (underpayment, excessively long hours…) despite the introduction of a Bill in 2013 which will impose penalties on those employers found doing this.

Speakers included the Minister of Immigration Michael Woodhouse, Human Rights Commissioner David Rutherford, UN legal advisor Dr Anne T Gallagher, activist Matt Friedman, and US Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission Marie Damour and a range of academic, NGO and government representatives.

New Zealand has stringent anti people trafficking laws. Prevention is a key strategy. However there have been no prosecutions in the last 9 years.

The US State Departments report on People Trafficking for 2013 maintains this is because the "evidentiary bar" set by our laws is too high.

At the international level though there are many organisations working to prevent trafficking, it seems that for a variety of reasons, the numbers of those trafficked is on the increase.

Read the Conference report

Source

• Supplied: Sister Gemma Wilson
• The Salvation Army

The Vulnerabilities to Trafficking in the Pacific report from the Australian Institute of Criminology warns of an alarming rise in trafficking in this part of the world. The report says that during the past six years, Samoa and nine other countries in the region reported their belief that people had been trafficked into their countries.

Auali'itia says Samoa is not immune. During an interview with the Samoa Observer yesterday, he revealed the latest case on these shores."The most recent case was late last year when a group of people from Bangladesh illegally migrated to Samoa," he says.