A Nasinu woman has been arrested for her alleged involvement in a human trafficking case in New Zealand, while an arrest warrant has been issued for her sister who is residing in Australia.
This is after a joint investigation was conducted between the Fiji Police Force and New Zealand Police.
Police say the 31-year-old woman of Nasole, Nasinu and her sister are alleged to have facilitated the travel of 17 Fijian citizens who were exploited through slavery and became victims of human trafficking in Auckland, New Zealand between April to August 2016.
Police say the two had been operating a travel agent business from Nina Street, Suva and are alleged to have placed an advertisement in one of the newspapers about employment opportunities in New Zealand.
They say the victims were allegedly advised to provide necessary documents for application of New Zealand visas and were promised work visa or tourist visa with work permit.
They were alleged to have obtained money from victims just for visa application process.
Police say the victims were allegedly exploited in New Zealand as the suspects organised and facilitated the exit of the victims from Fiji, and in facilitating the exit were reckless as to whether the victims will be exploited.
They say the victims were allegedly exploited through forced labour to work in unfavourable weather conditions, less or no wage and living conditions where male and female victims had to share one room.
It is alleged that the suspects were notified of these conditions and did not take any action but continued to send more victims to New Zealand.
Police say both suspects had remitted and received more than $83,000 to and from New Zealand from an accomplice Faroz Ali, who was convicted in New Zealand for human trafficking offences with an imprisonment sentence of 9 years and 6 months.
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