More victims of the migrant worker visa scam have been found by the Immigration New Zealand
Officials from Immigration New Zealand who are looking into the exploitation of migrants from India and Bangladesh say they have found another 29 victims.
They have now discovered 144 migrants who were living in conditions that were unclean and overcrowded in 10 different houses located throughout Auckland.
Many have come in the country having spent thousands of dollars for work visas sponsored by authorized employers, only to discover that there is little to no work available.
The migrants said that they had been without a source of money for some months.
The migrants had been offered positions with a select group of firms who are currently being examined in connection with the allegations of maltreatment.
Investigators went to the homes where the workers were sleeping and discovered that the accommodations were inadequate for housing such a big group of people. This led them to conclude that the homes should not have been used to house the workers.
During the investigation, Immigration New Zealand stated that it was collaborating with the Indian High Commission in New Zealand as well as the Bangladeshi High Commission in Australia.
The welfare of the migrants was being looked after by representatives from Victim Support, the Ministry of Social Development, and the police, in addition to members of the local community.
While this was going on, Immigration stated that they were also speaking to all of the migrants, and they anticipated that this would take some time. Additionally, the migrants were urged to visit the Jobs and Skills centres that were hosted by MSD.
Immigration New Zealand has announced that it has completed its evaluation of 190 people living outside of the country who were also granted visas and who had connections to the businesses that were the subject of the investigation.
According to what we read, 135 of those individuals had their visas revoked.
The remaining individuals include those who have sought for a new visa, those whose visas have expired, and those whose visas have been revoked at the border.
