Trafficking jury told of Fiji job ad

Worker says she got a garage floor and $25 after paying $2700 for work permit, flights

AFijian worker was lured to New Zealand under false promises and paid only $25 after pruning fruit nearly every day for three weeks, a jury has been told.

New Zealand’s second human trafficking trial continued in the High Court at Auckland yesterday with Fijian national Faroz Ali, 46, facing 15 people-trafficking charges. The Crown has alleged Ali lured 15 Fijian workers to New Zealand and exploited them upon arrival.

One of the workers, Suliana Vetanivula, told the court yesterday she “knew something was wrong” on the first night she arrived in New Zealand in July 2014. She had paid a travel agency in Suva around $2700 for a work permit, flights and a week’s worth of rent and food.

But, she told the jury, she never received the work permit and said she was instead told to mislead New Zealand customs officials when she arrived in the country, by saying she was visiting family on her arrival card.

The mother of seven told the court food and rent was not provided for her and three other workers when they arrived at their employer’s house in Tauranga. Instead they were forced to all sleep on the floor of his garage.

They worked almost every day for the first three weeks pruning at a kiwifruit orchard in Tauranga. When they asked their employer for their wages, Vetanivula said the workers were told by Ali they actually owed him money for rent, petrol and food. He allegedly gave them $25 each, so they could buy food for the week.

Vetanivula said she had responded to a travel agency ad in April 2014 for high-paying employment in New Zealand.

The Crown alleges Ali’s wife and sister-in-law were running the travel agency from Suva, but Ali was “the driving force” behind it while he was living in Auckland.

Ali has pleaded not guilty to the trafficking charges and 16 counts of coercing a person to unlawfully enter New Zealand and to remain working in the country illegally. He has pleaded guilty to 26 charges of coercing a person to breach their visa conditions and exploiting employees by failing to provide holiday pay and minimum wage.

Ali’s lawyer Peter Broad told the court on Monday the defence would centre around Ali’s frame of mind at the time of the alleged offending.