Her offending was detected following an INZ operation in the Bay of Plenty looking into allegations of migrant worker exploitation in the horticulture industry.
Immigration investigators discovered migrant workers were being encouraged to falsely claim refugee status to obtain work visas.
Azman charged workers up to $600 each to facilitate these fake applications.
Statements from workers revealed an individual was responsible for creating a “story” that would then be used to make the refugee claim and be submitted to INZ.
A ‘planned attempt’ to ‘manipulate’ the system
INZ national manager of immigration investigations Jason Perry said the sentence held Azman accountable for a “planned attempt to manipulate the immigration system while concurrently making additional income for herself”.
“This sentence sends a message to people that this sort of cynical and devious behaviour will not be tolerated and will be uncovered by INZ. When cases such as this one appear we will take all steps available to us to criminally prosecute the individual.
“Filing, and supporting the filing of, fraudulent refugee claims is an egregious abuse of the immigration system and it diverts time and effort away from processing valid refugee claims.”
The Herald previously reported Azman was on a working holiday in New Zealand, where she worked as an interpreter at an Auckland-based law firm.
During the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020, she lived in Tauranga and stayed at the same place as several migrants who worked as kiwifruit pickers.
The Crown alleged Azman encouraged the migrants to apply for refugee status, made up the stories, and took them to her law firm for lawyers to file their refugee claims.
The migrants did not speak or read English, and sought New Zealand visas or better jobs.
Most of the asylum seekers claimed that without refugee status to protect them, they would face retribution from loan sharks in Indonesia and Malaysia. In some cases, identical wordings were used to outline their fear of being attacked if they returned home.
INZ encouraged anyone who knew of immigration offending to report it to police or the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.
Megan Wilson is a health and general news reporter for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has been a journalist since 2021.
