By Gill Bonnett of RNZ
Immigration New Zealand helped clear the way for an adopted girl to live with a family investigated by police for people-trafficking.
The case was detailed in a no-surprises briefing to Immigration Minister Erica Stanford, where the agency flagged the adopted 17-year-old’s situation as high-risk, but explained its hands were tied.
Police said their interview raised concerns that the adoptive family or parent – the redactions makes it unclear which – was “controlling all aspects” of their children’s lives, including their finances.
Immigration officials said they had concerns over the number of children adopted by the supporting parent and that the teenager would have to pay the wages from her job to her new family.
The girl’s dependent-child residence visa was approved because she met all the immigration requirements, allowing her to travel to New Zealand to live with her adoptive parents.
“INZ has concerns due to the number of children adopted by the supporting parent,” said INZ officials, in the redacted reports, obtained under the Official Information Act.
“The adoptive [parent/family] was investigated by New Zealand police at the time. INZ... and New Zealand police concluded the evidence obtained did not fulfil the requirements of people-trafficking.
“However, the police interview did raise concerns that the adoptive [parent/family] was controlling all aspects of [their] adopted children’s lives, including their finances.
“INZ has interviewed the applicant... birth parents and adoptive parents during assessment of this residence application, and the interviewees stated that the applicant will be expected to give [her] earnings to the adoptive [family] when she starts working in New Zealand.”
The visa application was highlighted in reports to INZ bosses and ministers last December, and was due to be approved, when the case was marked “closed” in a January update.
No-surprises reports are used by decision-makers to monitor sensitive matters, with implications for topics such as law and order, national security, foreign affairs and the “maintenance of trust and confidence in government or other government policy objectives”.
“INZ has assessed the application and is satisfied that all requirements are met for the applicant to be granted residence under the dependent child category.
“MBIE Policy [unit] briefed the Minister of Immigration on the key risks and issues in the international adoption space, including child welfare, trafficking risks, as well as risks to the integrity of the immigration system from non-genuine adoptions.
“The briefing explores options for addressing these challenges, such as changes to the Adoption Act 1955.”
Most intercountry adoptions occur via family or customary adoption or through Hague Convention protocols, and present no child welfare issues. But some have been flagged for potential human trafficking – enabled by a lack of checks by New Zealand authorities on adoptive parents and home environments before the adoptions take place.
Under current legislation, adoptions that take place in overseas countries that have not signed the Hague Convention do not need pre-screening of adoptive families.
Oranga Tamariki (OT) was not mentioned in INZ’s January briefings, which showed the applicant was a student in her unnamed home country.
Figures obtained by charity Tearfund showed most adoptions where pre-screening does not take place in New Zealand were from Samoa, but also included countries such as Kiribati and Congo. More than 2300 children were granted citizenship over five years following overseas adoptions “from high-risk countries where proper safeguarding didn’t take place”.
A community social worker who previously worked with older teenage victims told RNZ that earnings were taken by the family and they were given back a sum of money, typically $20 a week. Financial control was the tip of the iceberg, as physical abuse, threats and sex abuse by family members also took place.
Only one person who adopted children or teenagers overseas has so far faced prosecution for trafficking.
OT has previously uplifted internationally adopted children, and officials and experts have told successive ministers that changes to the 70-year-old Adoption Act were needed to fix the problem.
Last month, the Government announced it would tighten trafficking and people-smuggling laws, with Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith saying prosecutions were too hard, offenders were receiving light sentences and legal loopholes often stood in the way.
– RNZ