Photo credit: Sunlive
A court in New Zealand has found two people—a man and a woman—guilty of aiding and abetting individuals to breach the conditions of their visas.
Scoop Politics reports that the woman, Maristela De Souza, who is a Brazilian, has been sentenced to 10 months of home detention after being charged along with co-defendant Michael James Sloan. The charge was the result of an Immigration New Zealand investigation into anonymous tip-offs claiming the pair were facilitating female Brazilian nationals to work as prostitutes while on temporary entry class.
Michael James Sloan is already serving ten months of home detention.
Both people acted as booking agents for 15 Brazilian women. They arranged to advertise and handled customer communication and bookings for sex workers on temporary entry-class visas. In most cases, they did their business out of motels across central North Island.
“De Souza deliberately flouted New Zealand immigration law, and, with Sloan, facilitated the women to breach the conditions of their visas,” said Jason Perry, MBIE National Manager Immigration Investigations.
Mr Perry continues, “While there was no indication of worker exploitation in this case, the fact remains that the women came to New Zealand and breached the conditions of their temporary entry class visas by working illegally.”
