No child trafficking for sex in NZ, says commissioner

If human trafficking is happening in New Zealand, there is no evidence that it involves children, the Commissioner for Children said today.

Cindy Kiro was responding to the United States state department's annual Trafficking in Persons report which claims New Zealand has "a large problem" with children being trafficked inside the country for sex.

The US report has been criticised for misinterpreting research statistics from the New Zealand non-governmental organisation End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography, Child Sex Tourism and Trafficking in Children (Ecpat).

Ecpat says the 2001 research found 195 children were selling sex in New Zealand, with 145 of those under 16, but in no way did it suggest the children were being trafficked by gangs internally.

"The United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) tells me human trafficking of adults and children is growing internationally, which means there are more children being trafficked," Dr Kiro told NZPA.

"But I am not aware of anything that shows there is a particular problem in New Zealand."

The Government should look at the powers of the police and other agencies under the Prostitution Reform Act to visit brothels and places where sex was being sold, to find any underage New Zealand girls or underage illegal immigrants working there.

"That would be the best way of tracking whether or not there were organised rings using children, both domestically and internationally," Dr Kiro said.

A 2002 Justice Ministry report, based on anecdotal evidence, said police estimated there were over 500 Thai women in Auckland's sex industry alone, but it was impossible to tell how many were under 18, and therefore able to be considered the victims of child trafficking.

"While trafficking to New Zealand may be a relatively small problem... the Human Rights Commission and police acknowledge it has the potential to become a growing problem," the report, Protecting Our Innocence, says.

The Human Rights Commission had received telephone calls from health workers reporting Thai girls under 18 were seeking medical attention, who had been subjected to sexual violence," the report says.

"By the time police have become involved it has been discovered the addresses given are false or the girls have moved to a new location.

"There are many other obstacles that prevent trafficked children coming to the attention of police or other authorities."

By April 2001, the Human Rights Commission had helped six Thai women bonded to the New Zealand sex industry, the report says.

The report says the Government was working on measures to help people "who may already be trapped in sexual slavery in New Zealand".

The Justice Ministry, Justice Minister Phil Goff and the Immigration Service today all dismissed the US report as misleading and confusing.

All three said there had been no known cases of child trafficking for sex in New Zealand.

The Immigration Service said trafficking -- often involving coercion, threats and kidnapping -- was often confused with people smuggling -- the voluntary movement of people into New Zealand to work illegally.

If there was any significant trafficking going on, the Immigration Service would know about it, a spokesman told National Radio.

"About two years ago, we visited a sweatshop where we discovered some individuals who could broadly be described as being in a coercive situation -- their passports had been removed and there were some constraints on their liberty, but they weren't locked up as such."

Ecpat spokeswoman Denise Ritchie told NZPA today the US report had been "utterly misleading" about New Zealand.

"Children moving around of their own free will is very different to children being trafficked."

However, Ms Ritchie was aware of reports of Asian women being tricked into prostitution in New Zealand after thinking they were coming to work in restaurants.

She had been phoned by a man who had gone to a massage parlour "for a massage" and had seen a group of young Asian girls huddled together and looking frightened, she said.

The police were phoned but the girls had vanished.

- NZPA