The 31-year-old woman alleged to be involved in a Human trafficking case in New Zealand has been charged.
The accused has been charged with 11 Counts of Obtaining Property by Deception and 1 Count of Money Laundering.
Her sister has been charged in absentia with 5 Counts of Obtaining Property by Deception and 1 Count of Money Laundering.
Both have been jointly charged with 17 Counts for Trafficking in Person.
A joint investigation was conducted between the Fiji Police Force New Zealand Police, and New Zealand Immigration.
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 and the alleged offence took place in 2014.
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 visas or tourist visas with work permits.
The suspects were alleged to have obtained money from victims just for visa application processes.
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 onvicted in New Zealand for human trafficking offences with an imprisonment sentence of 9years and 6months.
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