Indian businesses in New Zealand have been accused of selling jobs to international students in order for them to secure visas to stay in the country.
Immigration NZ believes that businesses are deliberately targeting students and using them as cheap labour, paying some of them as little as $ 5 an hour after charging them thousands of dollars for job sponsorships, reports.
Immigration documents show some businesses may have an established model, developing relationships with private education providers to get access to students.
"It is likely there are Indian business owners in New Zealand deliberately creating connections with PTEs,” an Immigration report from July 2016 said.
The report said the businesses are doing so to sell jobs.
“It is likely that the purpose of this is to recruit students to work at their businesses, with the end goal being to sell jobs to the students when they are ready to apply for work and residence visas.”
A former student employed at one of the businesses under the scanner told the Labour authorities that he paid $20,000 to secure a job, an April 2017 report said.
The document also reveals that one of the education providers was involved in transporting their Business Administration Diploma students to work in kiwi fruit orchards five days a week where the students were paid $5 an hour.
Immigration authorities suspect that a former staff member at an Auckland tertiary institute is involved in facilitating the “family-based network that involves breaches of numerous immigration and labour laws”.
The man who now works at a different institute was allegedly collaborating with education agents in India to provide a “package” to students including a student visa, jobs, and subsequent job sponsorship for the residence visa.
