Pritpal Singh came to New Zealand in search of a brighter future.

He'd grown up in the northern Indian city of Jammu near the border with Pakistan, just a few hundred kilometres from Islamabad.

Now, dressed in a grey hoodie and blue sports shirt, he speaks hesitantly as he gestures and tells the story in Punjabi of how he became a migrant victim.

RACHEL TREVLYAN / FAIRFAX NZ

Singh, also known as Sunny to his friends, arrived in New Zealand on a student visa in 2010.

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He enrolled in a business management course before travelling to the Bay of Plenty to earn some extra money to support himself.

SCREENSHOT/MAHESH BINDRA Pritpal Singh found himself working as a virtual slave on kiwifruit orchards in the Bay of Plenty.

Singh found himself working as a virtual slave, pressured into using a fake ID and putting in 80-hour weeks on kiwifruit orchards around Opotiki for as little as $25 a day.

It was gruelling work in the sun and rain, where he and other migrant workers lived in fear – the perceived threat of being deported or kidnapped hung over their heads if they dared complain.

Singh's employer promised the rest of his wages as a lump sum once his contract ended; that never happened.

Pritpal Singh worked 80-hour weeks on kiwifruit orchards for as little as $25 a day.

Instead, he says his boss kept most of the orchard fees for himself and told his workers to get lost when they asked for their share.

When Singh protested, the contractor threatened to turn him over to Immigration NZ for breaching the terms of his student visa.

Singh is just one of the many migrants who become victims once they arrive in New Zealand; a recent two-year study from the University of Auckland identified a pattern of similar stories.

SUPPLIED Dr Christina Stringer spent two years researching the issue of worker exploitation in New Zealand.

"Exploitation of migrant workers is quite widespread in some industry sectors," says Dr Christina Stringer, an associate professor with the Faculty of Business and Economics.

Many migrants are afraid to speak out for fear of being deported: "That's a threat that's often held over employees, is that they'll be turned over to Immigration NZ."



MARKET FORCES

Foreigners are flooding into New Zealand to work and study.



In the year ending June 2016, 183,583 people arrived on work visas, while 94,941 arrived on student visas.



Those figures are triple what they were for the year ending June 2004.



This migration explosion has provided a steady supply of cheap labour, with many of the new arrivals unaware of what they're entitled to under New Zealand's labour laws.

MAARTEN HOLL/FAIRFAX NZ Lawyer Craig Tuck says cheap products often come at the expense of vulnerable migrants.

"We want cheap products, and we want to utilise a low-cost or no-cost model," says crusading Tauranga lawyer Craig Tuck, who campaigns for the rights of foreign workers.

"Often it's the poorest and most vulnerable people that end up being exploited, and allowing us to have cheaper products or higher productivity."

Being handed over to Immigration NZ may be a potent threat for some migrants, but in reality the department has struggled to monitor the swelling number of foreigners crossing our borders.



The increase is making many Kiwis uncomfortable, and New Zealand faces the prospect of a populist backlash that reflects a global wave of anti-immigrant sentiment.



Growing unease with what was seen as uncontrolled immigration encouraged the UK to vote to leave the European Union, amid fears that migrants were squeezing native Brits out of the labour market.



Similar discontent saw Donald Trump elected to the White House following a campaign promise to crack down on immigration and build his now-infamous wall along the United States border with Mexico.



America has exported some of that fear to New Zealand. One of Trump's backers, Facebook billionaire Peter Thiel, was revealed this week to have taken out New Zealand citizenship and bought an estate in Wanaka. He is a rich and outspoken proponent of "seasteads" – creating small and insular Pacific Island gated states to act as exclusive havens from the intrusions of tax, welfare and uncontrolled migration.

CHRIS SKELTON/FAIRFAX NZ NZ First MP Mahesh Bindra is concerned New Zealand's immigration system is being abused.

INVESTIGATING CONCERNS

Mahesh Bindra dreamed of an improved life for his children.



He lived a comfortable life in Mumbai, India, but felt education opportunities would be better in New Zealand, prompting a move about 15 years ago.



Bindra threw himself into the Kiwi way of life, and just over a decade later made his way into parliament as an MP for New Zealand First.



While he's grateful for the opportunities he's had as a migrant arrival, he's worried the system is now being abused, and is concerned that student visas in particular are being used as a back door to get into New Zealand.



"Our immigration policy is so wide, and so vague, that you can drive a double decker bus through it," he says.



"People are making good use of that, but you can't blame the students. We have to blame ourselves for not formulating quality immigration policy."



Bindra's status as a native Punjabi speaker has made him a point of contact for young Indians who find themselves in difficult situations.



Their calls for help prompted Bindra to embark on a road trip to the Bay of Plenty with fellow NZ First MP Richard Prosser, where the pair discovered people packed into houses five to a room.



Stories emerged of unscrupulous employers who set up companies, worked the orchards for a season then disappeared as quickly as they'd arrived, skimming off most of the fees for themselves.



Bindra says workers are "given basic rations, and they basically work like slaves, in the hope that one day their student visa can be converted to a work visa, and then on to permanent residence."



Singh reveals many are afraid to speak out.

"They force these people to work, and they threaten them that 'if you don't work for us then we will complain about you to the police or kidnap you'," he says.

SUPPLIED Peter Devoy is assistant general manager for compliance and border operations at Immigration NZ.

IMMIGRATION CRACKDOWN

Peter Devoy spent 33 years with the police force stamping out financial crime.

He joined Immigration NZ two and a half years ago as assistant general manager for compliance and border operations.



The common thread of economic exploitation has carried over to Devoy's new role, and he echoes concerns about the way vulnerable people are treated once they arrive in the country.



"We're seeing cases where passports are taken, their movements are restricted, and their support lines within New Zealand are narrowed, so they're trapped," he says.



Devoy acknowledges the current student visa scheme is difficult to monitor, with authorities mostly unable to track who is working more than the 20 hours allowed each week.



"People come in and they're obviously here to work… but trying to police the 20-hour rule is very difficult."



Devoy concedes Immigration NZ does not have the resources to investigate every case of suspected abuse, but says the department is ramping up its efforts to protect vulnerable migrants.



"We've established a serious offences unit in Auckland, and they're taking on more high-end prosecutions such as people-trafficking," he says.



"Where we see people being exploited, we're not going to tolerate that, and for the worst cases we'll be prosecuting."

CHRIS MCKEEN/FAIRFAX NZ Fijian national Faroz Ali was sentenced in 2016 for 57 charges related to human trafficking.

PEOPLE TRAFFICKING



Faroz Ali carries the dubious notoriety of being the first person convicted of people trafficking in New Zealand.



The 46-year-old Fijian national lured unsuspecting workers from Fiji, charging them thousands of dollars for "work visas" that turned out to be holiday permits.



They were promised high wages and free food and accommodation while working in New Zealand, but in reality they were herded together like cattle and barely paid for their work in construction and horticulture.



One of Ali's victims, Suliana Vetanivula, was told at one point she actually owed him money because she needed to cover the cost of her meals and lodging.



She slept in a room with two other women and a man, who turned to the wall when his female colleagues changed clothes because they were embarrassed by his presence.



Vetanivula ended up being paid around $75 for three weeks of work.



She returned to Fiji humiliated and out of pocket, unable to repay the money she had borrowed to travel to New Zealand.



"When I returned to the village I felt like I wasn't wanted anymore. It was like I stole money from [the villagers]," she says in a victim impact statement.



In December, Faroz Ali was jailed for nine years and six months on 57 charges relating to human trafficking.



Justice Paul Heath took a hard line during sentencing, telling Ali he had committed "a crime against human dignity".

"It undermines the respect that all of us should have for the human rights and the autonomy of individual people.

"It is a crime that should be condemned in the strongest possible terms."

RACHEL TREVLYAN / FAIRFAX NZ

EMPLOYER'S DEFENCE

Sushi chain boss Rosanna Imai also claims she was treated unfairly during her time in New Zealand – but hers is a very different story.



Rather than being an abused worker, she was one of those found to have taken advantage of vulnerable migrants.



Rather inexplicably, Imai feels she's also a victim: she quit her business recently and returned home to the Philippines, upset and believing she had been the target of a witch hunt.

Immigration NZ turned its attention to her chain of Auckland sushi restaurants following complaints that her workers were being mistreated.



The Auckland District Court heard Imai forced the employees to work more than 60 hours per week, and underpaid them by more than $55,000.



She was sentenced in December on nine charges relating to exploitation, and was ordered to make an emotional harm payment of $5000 to her victims.



They also received compensation payments for their lost earnings.



The Sunday Star-Times visited Imai's modest bungalow residence in the affluent Auckland suburb of Mission Bay, where her husband maintains she's done nothing wrong.



"It was very unfair," he says.



"But we cannot talk about our side, because we are talking with our lawyer."



Imai's husband says her case has been blown out of proportion, and his wife has now abandoned New Zealand and returned to the Philippines because she was "so sad".



"We were very shocked."

SUPPLIED Mike Chapman urges growers to make sure the people on their orchards are working legally.

INDUSTRY RESPONSE

A new ID card scheme in the horticulture industry is one project that could help save migrant workers from abuse.

The identification system is being developed by Master Contractors, which represents contracting services for seasonal industries.

The network will track migrant workers through the system, and require them to carry cards proving their employment status.

"If a contractor has his staff working on an orchard somewhere, then the grower can ask for those ID cards, and have confidence that the people working on his orchard are legal, and being paid correctly," says Ian Fryer, the group's chief executive officer.

The ID cards will also track when workers on student visas exceed the 20-hour maximum within a week.

Master Contractors audits its members against strict criteria, including a guarantee that all staff are paid at least the minimum wage.

It's not compulsory for contractors to sign up, but Fryer is encouraged by recent moves toward self-regulation.

"When everyone comes together and ensures that people have to meet certain standards, then eventually we'll make a huge impact," he says.

Mike Chapman, chief executive of Horticulture NZ, says growers are encouraged to do everything possible to make sure the people working on their orchards "are in fact meeting legal requirements".

"Where we find [cases of worker mistreatment] we work with the employers to rectify the situation, but we will also report anything we know to the enforcement agencies."

CITIZEN DUTY

Beyond the government and industry response, all New Zealanders have a part to play in stamping out migrant abuse.

Peter Devoy is keen to see greater awareness at the community level – with the issue of worker exploitation much closer to home than many might think.

"As soon as you have models such as that succeeding, then you have a real concern around our whole way of going about business," the immigration boss says.

"There is an abhorrence for exploitation, and if members of the public were quite aware of what was going on, they would certainly move against it.

"It's not something that is part of the Kiwi way of life."