Sex slave granted residency
AUCKLAND: A teenage girl sold up to five times a day for sex with random men by her mother will stay in New Zealand and has been granted residency.
She can now live, work and study in New Zealand and will not live in constant fear of deportation.
Last month, Kasmeer Lata was jailed for almost seven years for using her teenage daughter as a sex slave and selling her body to men about 1000 times over a twoyear period.
She sold her daughter as many as five times a day, charging men up to $200 per session.
Lata moved to New Zealand with her children from Fiji after her marriage broke up.
Their visitor visas expired and they began living as illegal immigrants.
The teen was unable to enrol in school without alerting immigration authorities and the family soon ran out of money to pay for food.
Lata began working as a prostitute and told her 14yearold daughter she needed to start doing the same to help support the family financially.
Despite refusing, the teen was sold for the first time the day she turned 15.
The teen, who has permanent name suppression, fled to police in November 2016.
Lata was convicted of dealing in slaves and receiving earnings from commercial sexual services from an underage person.
Her partner, Avneensh Sehgal, has pleaded guilty to dealing in underage people for sexual exploitation and receiving earnings from underage sexual exploitation and will be sentenced later this month.
Until yesterday, the teenager had no legal status in New Zealand and lived in fear every day that she would be deported.
Immigration New Zealand advised her yesterday morning that she had been granted residency.
She is now able to work, study and live in New Zealand permanently.