{"id":8399,"date":"2023-11-17T05:24:19","date_gmt":"2023-11-16T16:24:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=8399"},"modified":"2023-11-17T05:24:19","modified_gmt":"2023-11-16T16:24:19","slug":"chinese-migrant-workers-ensnarled-in-crowded-auckland-accommodation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=8399","title":{"rendered":"Chinese migrant workers ensnarled in crowded Auckland accommodation"},"content":{"rendered":"

The screws have tightened on companies and agents housing migrant workers since Immigration New Zealand launched an investigation into six Auckland properties in August\u00a0due to unsanitary living conditions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Yet, more properties with very high occupancy numbers continue to be discovered – the latest being a three bedroom-house in West Auckland believed to have housed as many as 22 people at its peak, according to workers who stayed there.<\/p>\n

Situated in Massey, the property housed an endless stream of migrants who constantly came and went, the workers said. When the bunk beds crammed into the bedrooms and living room were full, some workers reportedly slept in a makeshift space under the house.<\/p>\n

The property’s residents were mostly employees of Smaster Limited and Krays Civil Limited. Smaster is registered under Lulei Shi, while Krays Civil is registered under Shi’s partner, Yujun Xu, although Shi admits to being the company’s manager.<\/p>\n

Both companies are registered under the same address, and the property at which the workers have been staying is registered under the couple’s names. The Immigration New Zealand website shows both companies are accredited employers.<\/p>\n

Tao Han, a migrant worker who had been living at the property since arriving in New Zealand in late August, had worked for Krays Civil for about a month, but had not worked for three weeks when RNZ spoke to him at the end of October.<\/p>\n

“I wouldn’t be able to afford living in New Zealand like this,” Han said.<\/p>\n

Han had paid an agent almost $19,000 for his original New Zealand work visa, but arrived to find that the company tied to his visa had no work for him. The agent then helped him transfer the accredited work visa to Krays Civil.<\/p>\n

Lacking work, Han planned to return to China after receiving the wages he was owed.<\/p>\n

Shi told RNZ that he had not given the worker any further work because Han had told him he wanted to return to China. Han denied this.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

rnz<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The screws have tightened on companies and agents housing migrant workers since Immigration New Zealand launched an investigation into six Auckland properties in August\u00a0due to unsanitary living conditions. Yet, more properties with very high occupancy numbers continue to be discovered – the latest being a three bedroom-house in West Auckland believed to have housed as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":8400,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8399"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8401,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8399\/revisions\/8401"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}