Filipino News May 2018

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BUHAY NZ 06 OPINION ISSUE 114 | www.filipinonews.nz | email: filipinonews@xtra.co.nz | www.pinoynzlife.nz | 027 495 8477 Pinoys’ slavery for 3 Kings puts compatriots’ treatment in focus BY JEREMAIAH OPINIANO based in Adelaide A court’s decision involving Filipinos as both complainants and accused placed in focus how compatriots treat each other on foreign soil. Virgil, aka ‘Gie’, Balajadia was convicted on February 8 by the Auckland District Court of five charges, two of the five jointly with husband Luisito. The court ruled that the couple, the owners of 3 Kings Food restaurant, provided fraudulent and misleading information regarding the employment arrangements of five Filipino chefs, the complainants, to Immigration New Zealand (INZ) during the workers’ visa applications. The court also ruled that the Balajadias underpaid the workers while they were in their employ. In a statement, INZ quoted the unnamed Auckland District Court judge as saying: “You betrayed the trust of the victims, who were strangers to this country and believed that you had their best interests at heart.” “The judge went on to say that the working and living conditions of the victims was (sic) not far removed from a modern day form of slavery,” INZ quoted the judge as saying. Gie was sentenced to 26 months imprisonment and her husband to eight months of home detention. The conviction of the Balajadias was the latest affecting Filipinos and regarding compatriots illegally recruiting them. On April 4, 2017, Loraine Anne Jayme of Te Aroha (in the Waikato region) was sentenced to 11 months and two weeks of house arrest for forging work experience documents and applications for 17 Filipino dairy workers. Jayme is also married to a Filipino and both are dual citizens. In 2015, prior to the Jayme case, nearly a hundred Filipino dairy workers were duped by recruitment agents. This created an uproar in New Zealand, especially since Filipinos are favoured dairy workers in the country. That prompted Filipino migration authorities to visit New Zealand a year later and explain to their Kiwi counterparts the recruitment system and labour migration laws and regulations of the Philippines. KING’S LIFE The 3 Kings Food restaurant is found in the suburb of Birkenhead, four kilometres outside Auckland’s central business district. One of the Balajadias’ victims got sponsored by and worked with 3 Kings Food from April 2014 to July 2015. He complained of working at least ten hours a day for six days a week, allegedly with no breaks. However, the complaining worker was paid for only 40 hours a week and did not get any pay for his final 3.5 months with 3 Kings. The worker was contracted to work for a minimum of 30 hours a week at an hourly rate of NZ$16 (P608.27 at NZ$1=P38.02 current exchange rates), INZ said. According to the website ‘Employment New Zealand’, which is part of the country’s Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, the minimum wage rate (before tax) as at April 1, 2017, was NZ$15.75 per hour. The minimum wage increased to $16.50 per hour on April 1, 2018. The complainant’s case was brought to INZ after he reported it to the former Honorary Philippine Consul in Auckland, Paulo Garcia. Calculations by New Zealand’s Labour Inspectorate estimate that the victim may have been underpaid by 3 Kings by approximately NZ$15,000 in wages, plus NZ$2,000 less than the minimum wage and NZ$5,000 in holiday pay. THREATS AND VIO- LENCE The male victim the court didn’t identify was said to have rented a makeshift room in the Balajadias’ garage, paying the couple NZ$150 weekly. “He was told that he would be reported to the police and sent home if he did not perform well in his job,” INZ Assistant General Manager Peter Devoy said. “He could only leave the house for short periods of time and cleaned the defendants’ house on Mondays when the restaurant was closed.” This Filipino victim has remained in the country on a valid visa to work for another employer. The four others have left New Zealand. “We will not tolerate employers who exploit migrant labour for their own commercial advantage and will not hesitate to prosecute in cases where it is warranted,” Mr. Devoy was quoted in the INZ statement as saying. Both Virgil and Luisito were ordered by the court to pay NZ$7,200 (P268,212 at P37.30 = NZ$1) each in reparation to the victims. There are 26 licensed Filipino recruitment agencies given the green light to recruit workers to New Zealand. These are members of the network Australia and New Zealand Association of Employment Providers of the Philippines. The New Zealand government released a booklet in October last year for employers who are recruiting Filipino workers, titled: “Are you recruiting migrant workers from the Philippines? What you need to know.” The OFW Journalism Consortium HO ME COOKERY Open 7 days a week Mon-Sat: 8am - 5pm Sun: 9am - 3pm 236 Onehunga Mall Onehunga,Auckland Accepting orders for your party needs. T: 09 636 6297, M: 021 149 7358 The No.1 Filipino Bakery in town Try our freshly baked Filipino favourite breads for your breakfast and merienda such as pan de coco, pandesal, ube bread, star bread, pork bun, buko pandan cake and more... UBE CHEESE ROLL CHOCOLATE CHIFFON MONAY PANCIT MALABON PANDESAL EMPANADA ENSAYMADA SPANISH BREAD BANANA TURON
migrantnews.co.nz Voice of New Kiwis, International Students email: migrantnews@xtra.co.nz I 27th Year of Publication EXPO WELCOME TO NZ INTO OUR 12TH YEAR! Settlement Info Advanced Career Planning Health & Welfare Education & Training Employment Franchising Seminar Business Opportunities Last year, 13 Filipinos left every day for NZ - and stayed there BY JEREMAIAH OPINIANO MANILA - The number 13 is unlucky for many, especially the Chinese and those influenced by such Chinese beliefs. But for the number of Philippines-born individuals who flew to New Zealand every day in 2017 and stayed there, it could be considered a lucky number. Indeed, the average number of Filipinos permanently settling in New Zealand each day from 2015 to 2017 was 13. The number even increased by some five percent in 2017, Statistics New Zealand (SNZ) data shows. The year-end data of SNZ’s monthly ‘International and travel migration data’ showed that the net migration of Filipinos as permanent and longterm migrants (PLTs) was some 4,739 Filipinos last year, 5.05 percent up from the 4,511 figure in 2016. The 2017 and 2016 figures, however, are lower than the net permanent and long-term migration by Filipinos in 2015, which hit 5,109. This means that in three years, the total number of Filipinos who flew to New Zealand and stayed there totalled 14,359, or 13.11 daily, from 2015 to 2017. Hence, the Philippines is considered the fifthlargest origin country in terms of the size of net PLT migration to New Zealand last year. The top four origin countries of these permanent and long-term migrants, in net terms, are China (9,275), India (6,746), the United Kingdom (6,371) and South Africa (4,953). SNZ gets the figure on net PLT migration by subtracting the number of PLT departures and PLT arrivals. DRIVERS BY definition, SNZ refers to PLT arrivals as “overseas migrants who arrive in New Zealand intending to stay for a period of 12 months or more (or permanently), plus New Zealand residents returning after an absence of 12 months of more”. PLT departures, for their part, are “New Zealand residents departing for an intended period of 12 months or more (or permanently), plus overseas visitors departing New Zealand after a stay of 12 months or more”. The number of Filipinos as PLT arrivals also rose in 2017 by some 6.2 percent to 5,223 from 4.918 percent in 2016. Meanwhile, some 484 Filipinos as PLT departures were recorded in 2017, or some 18.9 percent more than the 407 who left New Zealand in 2016. What drove Filipino PLT arrivals in 2017 was Filipinos arriving on work visas (total: 2,396). In terms of the absolute number of PLT arrivals on work visas, the United Kingdom (723) and the Philippines (526) had the largest increases in work visa arrivals last year. However, 2017 Filipino PLT arrivals on student visas (1,527) and residence visas (896) were lower in number than the 2016 figures (1,570 and 973, respectively). New Zealand had a net migration of 70,016 in 2017, given migrant PLT arrivals of 131,566 and departures of 61,550. In the terms of New Zealand’s census, the latest of which was in 2013, there are 40,347 Filipinos in New Zealand. Half of them (20,502) live in the Auckland region and some 86 percent of these Filipinos (34,356) were born in the Philippines. An analysis by the Asia New Zealand Foundation, written by Asian Studies Professor Manying Ip of the University of Auckland, showed that Filipinos are the third-largest Asian ethnic group in New Zealand, overtaking the Koreans. But unlike some negative media reports of the numerous entries of Chinese and Korean international students, “there was no outcry of a ‘Filipino invasion and no discussion of ‘Filipino student issues’ in the [New Zealand] mainstream media,” Ip wrote. She gave five reasons for this observation: Filipinos’ high rates of English fluency, their entry as skilled migrants in New Zealand, Filipinos’ “presence as comparatively ‘stable settlers’,” Filipinos’ religious habits and Filipinos’ Austronesian physical looks. CITIZENSHIP Filipinos registered a historic high in the number of their compatriots who were granted citizenship by New Zealand in 2017. Sixty eight year data (from 1949) from New Zealand’s Department of Internal Affairs showed that 3,565 Filipinos were granted citizenship in 2017. That is an 18.2 percent uptick from the 2016 total of 3,016. - The OFW Journalism Consortium Continued on page 8
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Filipino News May 2018

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