New Zealand's response
Principles and Goals
Overall objective
The New Zealand Government prevents people trafficking, brings offenders to justice and offers protection and assistance to victims of trafficking.
What is People Trafficking?
People trafficking is a crime against humanity that crosses international borders. It is the act of recruiting, transporting, transferring, harbouring and receiving a person through the use of force, coercion or other means for the purpose of exploiting them. A victim of people trafficking is deceptively recruited into exploitative conditions; they may be bonded to their traffickers through an unacceptable debt and in many cases kept in slave-like conditions.
Principles:
- Victims of people trafficking have humanitarian needs and should be afforded appropriate assistance and protection.
- Traffickers and their associates, and people who exploit victims of trafficking, are to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
- The whole-of-government response to people trafficking is coordinated, timely and comprehensive and meets New Zealand's international commitments.
Goals
Prevention:
- The New Zealand government contributes to people trafficking prevention though international engagement and development programmes.
- New Zealand's borders are secured from trafficking activity.
- Awareness is raised within government and targeted community groups on trafficking indicators and anti-trafficking procedures.
- Cases of suspected trafficking activity are identified and referred to the New Zealand Police for investigation.
Protection:
- Victims of trafficking are afforded access to protection measures consistent with New Zealand's international commitments.
- Government agencies accommodate the needs of victims of trafficking, including timely access to health and social services.
- The New Zealand government provides assistance for victims by utilising existing arrangements with non-government organisations.
- Government agencies assist victims of trafficking to return to their home country or remain in New Zealand as necessary.
Prosecution:
- New Zealand undertakes high quality investigations into suspected trafficking activity to enable prosecution of alleged people traffickers.
- The criminal justice process is supportive of the specific needs of victims of trafficking during prosecutions.
United Nations Convention against Transnational Crime
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNDOC) is the guardian of the Convention against Transnational Crime and its protocols. New Zealand ratified this convention in 2002. The Convention and its protocols provide States with direction on measures to join the international efforts to combat transnational crimes such as people trafficking and smuggling.
United Nations Definition of People Trafficking
The United Nations defines people trafficking as:
the recruitment, transportation, transfer and harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, or the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability, or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to a person in control of the victim, for the purposes of exploitation which includes sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or similar practices, and/or the removal of organs.
Difference between People Trafficking and People Smuggling
People smuggling and people trafficking are different crimes. People smuggling relates to a migrant voluntarily paying a smuggler to facilitate illegal entry into another country and the smuggler obtaining, directly or indirectly, a financial or other material benefit for procuring such entry. Victims of people trafficking are deceptively recruited from one country into exploitative conditions in another country which they did not agree to or have been coerced to accept.
Timetable
The Plan of Action work items have been noted as either: Short, Medium or Long-term goals. Short-term goals will aim to be completed within one year of implementation of the Plan of Action and will be reported on in the first annual plan. Medium-term work items will be completed within two years. Long-term work items taking longer than two years include those items that may either take a long time to complete or will only be able to be undertaken if a case of people trafficking is identified and is being dealt with by government agencies.