Police say it is possible they have uncovered a human trafficking and migrant exploitation ring in Hawke’s Bay, sparked by a “distraught” victim raising the alarm.<\/p>\n
A 44-year-old man facing three charges of rape, and one of unlawful sexual connection, was remanded in custody and granted interim name suppression at Hastings District Court on Thursday.<\/p>\n
He was arrested following a joint operation between Hawke’s Bay police and Immigration New Zealand, called Operation Wentworth.<\/p>\n
The operation began when a victim contacted police “after fleeing and asking for help”, Detective Senior Sergeant Sally Patrick told RNZ.<\/p>\n
“She was distraught,” Patrick said.<\/p>\n
“She went to a person that she trusted, and then they phoned police and we attended straight away.”<\/p>\n
The woman accused the man of rape, and Patrick said the other information she gave led police to believe migrant exploitation and human trafficking were also at play.<\/p>\n
Human trafficking charges would likely be laid in the new year – but police first had to follow due process and seek the solicitor-general’s consent to lay those charges, which took some time, Patrick said.<\/p>\n
Police “highly suspect” there were other victims – and other potential perpetrators, too, she said.<\/p>\n
They had so far carried out three search warrants in Hawke’s Bay, and two migrants were served Deportation Liability Notices as a result.<\/p>\n
The investigation might go outside the region, and police were “potentially” looking at a human trafficking and migrant exploitation ring, Patrick said.<\/p>\n
“That’s why we are reaching out to any victims to get in contact, and that’s not always easy,” she said.<\/p>\n
“The type of exploitation that they’re subjected to makes them also scared to come forward.”<\/p>\n
That could be for a number of reasons, she said – including fears they might be deported, not having financial support, and if English was not their first language.<\/p>\n
“We want people to know that they can come forward and police will absolutely speak to them and try and support them where we can.”<\/p>\n
The man is due to appear in Hastings District Court again next week.<\/p>\n
Anyone with information can contact police on 111 and quote file number 231129\/1010 or call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111, police said.<\/p>\n
Immigration New Zealand declined to comment further, as the investigation is ongoing.<\/p>\n
VIA RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Police say it is possible they have uncovered a human trafficking and migrant exploitation ring in Hawke’s Bay, sparked by a “distraught” victim raising the alarm. A 44-year-old man facing three charges of rape, and one of unlawful sexual connection, was remanded in custody and granted interim name suppression at Hastings District Court on Thursday. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":8668,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,222,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-latest-news","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8667","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=8667"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8669,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8667\/revisions\/8669"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}