By Staff Writer
Warning reminders reeled out this week in Apia after a Samoan recruiter was sentenced to 11 years in jail last Monday in New Zealand for trafficking and enslaving a group of Samoans lured to work there.
The Ministry of Commerce Industry and Labour, MCIL, Pulotu Lyndon Chu Ling, recalled the criminal case clearly when it popped up two years ago from media reports in New Zealand.
“ We immediately inquired to our New Zealand counterpart under the RSE workers scheme about the case but found it was not under our workers programme,” CEO Pulotu recollected.
“Since then we have issued repeated warning notices against this type of individual recruiting and for the public to contact MCIL for any registration for this kind of work outside Samoa.”
MCIL has also recorded cases of a few local individuals brought into the office for a stern warning for this kind of recruiting.
“ There were others besides this man who were doing the same thing and our concern is when people are made to pay registration fees to be eligible for recruitment.”
New Zealand based Joseph Auga Matamata was convicted after the court heard that he worked his victims on “14-hour days, seven days a week without pay.
The 65- year old horticultural contractor would often beat up on his workers who were “too scared to go to the authorities because of his status of matai” back in Samoa.
There were 13 Samoans involved including a 12 year old, lured with the “promise of better work opportunities.
He was ordered to pay NZ$183,000 in reparations to the victim in addition to the jail sentence.
Immigration New Zealand and NZ Police said that “ it had been a highly complex investigation, and that Matamata’s actions were “abhorrent and went against all basic human decency”.
“His breaches of trust, physical abuse, and blatant disregard for the well-being of people he was purporting to help were unconscionable and must be condemned”, a Stephen Vaughan, a manager at Immigration New Zealand, was quoted by media reports.
Matamata’s lawyer Roger Philip told the Thomson Reuters Foundation his client, who denied all the charges, was “saddened by the verdict” and was considering his position over the conviction.
Matamata was the first person to be charged with both slavery and trafficking in New Zealand.
In sentencing him on Monday, the judge said he created a “climate of fear and intimidation”.
“The victims were told they could earn significant income by Samoan standards, which they would be able to send back to their families,” judge Helen Cull said, according to Radio New Zealand.
“Once in New Zealand, these Samoan nationals were exploited by you for your own and for your family’s financial gain.”
MCIL boss Pulotu confirmed a long waiting list of workers registered for work under the RSE scheme and understands their frustrations as well.
“ The role of the Government is to facilitate the process and we’re doing our best with the opportunities when they open up.”
More than 2 thousand Samoans are recruit for short working contracts in the NZ fruit farming industry and other schemes for carpentry and meat works.