By ANGELA GREGORY
An Auckland couple are understood to have reimbursed a Thai woman who ran away from them after they tried to get her to work in a brothel.
Last May the frightened woman, who had paid the couple to bring her to New Zealand, sneaked out of their house
and headed to the Panmure police.
The unemployed Thai farmer's wife said she had been promised air fares and nine months' restaurant work in Auckland for 150,000 baht ($8148).
But when the 28-year-old arrived, the couple told her she did not have a work permit and instead tried to get her to work in a massage parlour.
The woman has since returned to Thailand but the Human Rights Commission tried to take her case to the disputes tribunal to get $6000 of her money refunded.
The hearing was twice adjourned because of difficulties over paperwork and the availability of an interpreter.
But the commission yesterday confirmed that the woman had now dropped the case after receiving a payment via the Thailand police.
Human Rights Commissioner Chris Lawrence said in all the circumstances it would be extremely unlikely that the money, which was close to the amount sought, came from anyone other than the couple.
He said the head of the commission's policy unit, Sou Chaim, had advised the woman to accept it.
"The most important thing was for her to get her money back. It was a fortune by rural Thailand standards."
Mr Lawrence said the commission remained concerned at the trafficking of women for sex work in New Zealand.
He urged any men who used foreign sex workers to report where the women appeared reluctant and unhappy.
Auckland police district commander Howard Broad said police laid no charges against the couple because there was insufficient evidence of criminal offending.
Such cases were difficult to prove because they usually came down to one person's word against another's, and often crucial witnesses returned overseas.
But he understood that the Immigration Service had successfully ordered removal warrants for some of the other Thailand women employed by the couple.
By ANGELA GREGORY
An Auckland couple are understood to have reimbursed a Thai woman who ran away from them after they tried to get her to work in a brothel.
Last May the frightened woman, who had paid the couple to bring her to New Zealand, sneaked out of their house
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