Episode description
Episode description
A review into a new visa category that sparked more problems than it solved is scathing about Immigration NZ's processes and systems.
When you introduce a high-trust model of working into a sector known for unscrupulous behaviour, the results aren't pretty.
It was an answer to a problem that didn't exist.
And it was a mess.
When the Labour government introduced the Accredited Employer Work Visa in 2022, it was a reaction to some horrific stories of migrant exploitation, mainly of recently graduated students trying to make a living.
It rolled six older visas into one and was designed to go from a system that relied on migrants themselves to present all the relevant data to authorities in an application, to one that focused on employers to make genuine offers of work.
The policy change took place between 2017 and 2019, and then work on implementing it was done while our borders were closed during the pandemic.
After they reopened the pressure was on - it was a time of unprecedented labour shortages, very low unemployment and a pent-up demand for migrant labour, not to mention the influx of friends, relatives and wedding guests who'd put off their trips because of Covid.
New immigration staff were being trained up; big changes had been made; there was immense pressure from the government, employers and New Zealanders generally to get people in the country quickly; and INZ was part way through introducing a new computer system that split tasks up and ensured one person didn't have oversight of cases. The system was called ADEPT; it was so bad that some immigration advisers referred to it as INEPT.
On top of all that INZ adopted a 'light touch' policy - staff were told to initially cut back on the checks designed to stop bad actors exploiting the system. More rigorous checks would come in later. But that didn't happen.
Once that became known, the floodgates opened.
Staff, the immigration industry and lawyers raised concerns about the new processes, including the lack of checks. One of the first to ring alarm bells was immigration lawyer Alastair McClymont. His business partner was encountering job tokens for New Zealand positions being sold openly in India, Vietnam, China and elsewhere for tens of thousands of dollars.
"Certainly it became obvious to many people in the industry that there was a lot of money exchanging hands overseas," says McClymont. …