Chinese workers still waiting for answers a year after investigation began

Chinese workers say they have been cheated thousands of dollars and are still waiting for promised full-time jobs more than a year after authorities began investigating their employer.

At least 100 workers had accredited employer work visas (AEWV) with Prolink NZ Ltd, but some have remained jobless, while others were not working enough hours to get by.

Many claim to have paid service fees to Cook Huang - a licensed immigration advisor and owner of the Auckland immigration company Everlast Consultancy 2013 Corporation Ltd - who voluntarily surrendered his licence in September and is now before the Immigration Advisers Complaints and Disciplinary Tribunal.

RNZ has sighted five Prolink NZ Ltd workers' payments to Huang, and a woman who worked with him who RNZ has chosen not to name.

Immigration NZ (INZ) said it received the first complaint about Prolink NZ Ltd in May 2023, followed by further complaints in August last year, and had sent questionnaires to more than 100 migrant workers with AEWVs tied to Prolink NZ Ltd.

It refused to comment on RNZ's questions about the progress of the investigation, saying that it would compromise the investigation.

INZ said it suspended Prolink NZ Ltd's accreditation in September last year.

Workers still in limbo, kept in dark about investigation

Several workers told RNZ their work has been intermittent over the past year, with long periods of no work, or just one to two days of work per week.

Zhiqiang Wan - who has a contract with Prolink NZ Ltd as a delivery driver - arrived in New Zealand in May last year after allegedly paying about NZ$18,000 to Cook Huang.

RNZ has seen payments he made to Cook Huang and a woman who works with Huang.

Wan signed a service contract with Everlast Consultancy which covered visa service fees for him and his wife, and their son. He said he was offered the job after just a five-minute online interview with Huang.

Wan's wife's spousal visa was declined last year, due to Wan's insufficient work hours.

Since arriving, Wan said he had only been given full time hours between April and June this year.

Wan said he believed he had been duped by Huang and Prolink NZ Ltd.

"They used the government's visa system to cheat money from us overseas workers… now I want to be compensated and protect my rights," he said.

Wan claimed that the company had misled workers about the investigation.

"At the time the company told us it will all be fine by next month, the investigations are about little things, it's not serious, we will get through this together. They were just lying to us at the time, so that's how the issues just got left like that," he said.

Wan said he and many other workers were asked to fill a questionnaire from INZ last November, but he said the process was co-ordinated by Prolink NZ Ltd staff, who would collect the hand-written forms from workers.

"Everything I said was true, but immigration investigators haven't contacted me, it's been a year now… there's no good outcome," he said.

Wan made a further complaint to INZ in September, and is planning to take legal action along with eight other Chinese workers in similar circumstances.

Lihong Feng is another Prolink NZ Ltd worker who said she has had no work since the beginning of October.

Feng said she had paid the equivalent of more than NZ$37,000 to an agent in China for visas and jobs at Prolink NZ Ltd for her and her husband.

She said her agent told her most of the money was going towards people in New Zealand.

Feng arrived in Auckland in June last year, and said she had rarely been given full time hours with Prolink NZ Ltd, while her husband was left to find cash jobs working as a painter for just $15 an hour.

Feng said for a long time she remained silent because she was holding out hope.

"Since we're already here, and the company keeps telling us things will get better, I just keep sticking it out, but now it's too hard to go on, I'm losing sleep every night, I'm getting sick, I can't continue any longer, we've spent so much money [to come here] and I feel a lot of pressure'

A spokesperson for Prolink NZ Ltd told RNZ in a statement that it would only comment after a "formal conclusion" was provided by INZ.

Cook Huang has not responded to RNZ's approaches for comment.

INZ national manager of investigations Jason Perry said they would not comment on the circumstances of the Prolink NZ Ltd workers, but said they take all allegations of migrant exploitation seriously.

Expert: INZ's silence on investigation 'unacceptable' - expert

Christina Stringer heads Auckland University's Centre for Research on Modern Slavery and said it was "unacceptable" that the workers had received no updates in a year.

"I understand that Immigration New Zealand has received a large number of complaints, 2023, so there's a backlog, but at the very least, if there's an active investigation that is still ongoing, and a year is a long time, that should be communicated to the migrant workers," she said.

The Public Service Commission released its review into the AEWV scheme in February, finding that INZ should have done more to minimise the risk of abuse to the scheme.

The scheme, effective from July 2022 after post-Covid labour shortages, reduced visa processing times and checks required by immigration officers.

Immigration continues to deal with an increasing number of complaints against accredited employers, and has received nearly 5000 complaints since April.

Cam Bower - who leads a charity that helps exploited migrants - said in many of these cases victim support was lacking.

"Sadly it's not just in this case, it's across the board, it's simply because there may be a lack of resourcing or immigration don't partner with the necessary agencies to provide it, but at the end of the day its people we've allowed into the country that have become victims of a crime…and we're not giving them the proper response that they should be given," he said.

Bower said he wanted to see a duty of care to migrant workers written into the Health and Safety at Work Act, with penalties for workplace exploitation.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.