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NZ risks becoming sordid underage sex Mecca - Peters

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Peters: NZ risks being underage sex Mecca

3News NZ

A new report says New Zealand is a source of underage girls used for the sex trade (file, Reuters)

A new report says New Zealand is a source of underage girls used for the sex trade (file, Reuters)

New Zealand's anti-slavery laws lave been found wanting in a report by the US State Department which says New Zealand is a source of underage girls for the sex trade and a destination for foreign workers subjected to forced labour on fishing boats.

The list of abuses is revealed in the department's annual Trafficking in Persons report released by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Mrs Clinton called for trafficking "to be labelled for what it is, slavery".

The report identifies domestic issues.

"A small number of girls and boys, often of Maori or Pacific Island descent, are trafficked domestically to engage in street prostitution while some are victims of gang-controlled trafficking rings."

In response to the report, New Zealand First has called upon the Government to explain why the current situation has been allowed to develop.

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters says the report shows no trafficking offenders have been convicted and punished during the reporting period.

“The police must be given the resources to properly investigate these matters or New Zealand will go further down the road to becoming the sordid South Pacific Mecca of the child sex industry,” says Mr Peters.

The report also says that some Asian and Pacific Island people who migrate to New Zealand to work in the agriculture sector are also subsequently forced to work in conditions not stipulated in their contracts and are charged excessive fees.

In May, the New Zealand Government announced that within four years foreign-owned fishing vessels will need to be re-flagged as New Zealand ships, and therefore subject to the country's laws, if they want to continue fishing in its waters.

The move was a response to allegations of human rights abuses, low wages and misreported catches aboard some of the 27 Korean flagged boats currently fishing.

The State Department report says New Zealand does not have comprehensive anti-trafficking laws and does not criminalise all forms of forced labour.

"Although slavery is prohibited, its definition only covers situations of debt bondage and serfdom; thus, this prohibition does not cover forced labour obtained by means other than debt, law, customs, or agreement that prohibits a person leaving employment," the report says.

It recommends that New Zealand enact law to prohibit and adequately punish all forms of human trafficking.

New Zealand also needs to increase efforts to prosecute both sex and labour trafficking offenders.

3 News / NZN

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Comments

20/06/2012 7:15:34 p.m.

pondering wrote:

Last week it was an article on extreme violence committed on child prostitutes in Counties Manukau and the high number of such prostitutes often put on the street for work by their carers. Overseas studies confirm it this week. Yet there is very low apprehension and conviction rates for adults whom prey on children for prostitution , the pimps and the customers. It can only keep happening while the authorities condone it. Time to take a stand

20/06/2012 7:15:29 p.m.

pondering wrote:

Last week it was an article on extreme violence committed on child prostitutes in Counties Manukau and the high number of such prostitutes often put on the street for work by their carers. Overseas studies confirm it this week. Yet there is very low apprehension and conviction rates for adults whom prey on children for prostitution , the pimps and the customers. It can only keep happening while the authorities condone it. Time to take a stand

20/06/2012 6:19:24 p.m.

Greg wrote:

I think Thailand would be a stopeover and cheaper for foreigners. The US shouldclean up its owns backyard, highest child prostitute rates (vegas), horticulture workers abuses, number in tens of thousands. With the Nats attack on benificaries n lowering wages, its a income earner for a few families, so its great National is improving things.

20/06/2012 5:27:25 p.m.

john wrote:

this sort of thing is only going to get worse the way national govt is running this country, looking after the rich and to hell with those who are down at the bottom of the heap, they disgust me

20/06/2012 5:17:24 p.m.

Robert M wrote:

Of course the USA is a puritan society which pretends to believe in marriage and monogamy. Mrs Clinton marriage was of course open and a political partnership rather than a sexual one, at least in her husbands eyes.
Given that most of the middle class in the major US cities have mexican servants to do all their housework, cooking, cleaning and gardening, it would seem slavery is very widespread in the US.
US statements about equality under the law and anti drug and prostitution polices are of course only ever attended to apply to the poor. Middle class drug use or sexual libertarianism would never be investigated in the universties or rich suburbs- its only an issue if your drunk in the street every night like Martin Sheen or Lindsay Lohan and really that's only an issue to make a political example.
In the US its a matter of policy to allow the rich and students to drug and sex as they like. It might even be a desirable and sensible double standard- but it is particularly stupid to believe all the high faluting American moral standards and law and order is ever intended to be applied to anyone but the poor and uneducated. After all the possiblity of anysort of social mobility disaapeared in the US about 1973- with Reagans policy in California the immensely sensible policy of pricing good tertiary education out of the reach of the bottom 60%, free unlimited abortion as the most effective means of female happiness and crime control. Ensure the criminal class are never born and no women will reproduce with low paid workers.
But the real point is the US is not discriminatory- the rich are free whether left or right. Jane Fonda could dance with communist a/a units in Hanoi and then after a bit of argy bargy with immigration officials, a few police mug shots to keep the working class police happy-12 hours in the cells and she could get back to sex orgies and mainling drug parties in swimming pools in the Hollywood Hills.

20/06/2012 1:09:44 p.m.

moral outrage wrote:

This government has a programme of degrading of the education system , deepening of the youth unemployment disease , rapid increases in and lethal squeeze of the low income sector. Combine this with a massive push for international tourism in NZ and dubious seedy initiatives such as promoting casino and prostitution venues and you have an explosive recipe for complete exploitation and degeneration of our young people. Stop it Now !!!

20/06/2012 12:35:52 p.m.

Mike wrote:

Thats what happens when the far right Act and far left Greens get together and legalize prostitution. Yes it should be legal but it also should be regulated and taxed like every one else in this country, why the hell should we tax payers pick up the bills for them when they earn more than the average wage earner. Its also about time there were also laws in place where they can operate, they never should have been given total freedom to operate in residential areas.

20/06/2012 12:23:01 p.m.

Iron side wrote:

There has long been a market in children for the sex trade within NZ. CYF is well aware of this and does nothing. In many cases CYF kids are horrifically exploited in this way. There must be a massive far reaching inquiry into CYF and its abuses and exploitation of children. South Auckland is rife with this . All CYF "caregivers" need to be investigated.