Fijian paid $4k to live in squalor

A Fijian woman paid $4000 for what she believed was a New Zealand work and live scheme but was instead paid little to no money for her work and lived in poor conditions, she claims.

The first person to give evidence against alleged human trafficker Faroz Ali, 46, has detailed how she paid large sums of money to a Fijian travel agency in the belief that she would be paid $17 an hour for fruit picking in the Bay of Plenty.

Instead, she told the High Court at Auckland, she was given a visitor’s visa and was forced to lie about visiting non-existent friends and family in New Zealand to avoid detection at the border.

When she arrived at her accommodation she had to share a room with three others and in the middle of winter the workers were not given blankets or mattresses, she said.

She cried softy as she described the shame of having to return to Fiji about six weeks after flying to New Zealand, having borrowed substantial sums from friends and family for what she thought was a working visa.

‘‘People tend to look at me differently because I didn’t have any money to pay them back,’’ she said.

‘‘At the moment I still owe a lot of people a lot of money.

‘‘When I go out I feel ashamed to see them because when I needed help they were ready to help me, and in return I didn’t do my part.

‘‘I feel like I was not wanted in the village, like everybody thinks I’ve stolen money from them, because whenever anybody comes back from New Zealand and Australia they have a lot of money.’’

Ali, a New Zealand resident from Fiji, has denied 15 charges of trafficking people and 16 charges of aiding and abetting illegal workers to enter or remain in the country unlawfully.

The Crown alleges Ali hatched a scam borne out of ‘‘greed’’ to get Fijian workers to New Zealand, where they were exploited.

When the Fijians arrived in New Zealand, throughout 2014 and 2015, they were made to work in Ali’s gibfixing business in Papatoetoe, or were sent to Tauranga to work in orchards.

Ali has admitted charges of exploitation, including failing to pay workers properly, but denies the trafficking charges.

The trial is expected to last six weeks.