The man came to New Zealand seeking work, but now believes his documents were used to claim benefit payments. Photo: RNZ
A migrant worker says a person offering services as an employment and visa agent used his details to fraudulently obtain more than $17,000 in asylum seeker benefits.
Chinese construction worker Xueshui Chi said since July last year he was led by the agent to provide his passport and personal documents, and to attend meetings, under the impression that he was being assisted to find work and to get a new work visa.
The 44-year-old said he was in disbelief to find out last month that according to IRD records he had received about $17,700 in benefit payments - money that he said had not landed in his bank account.
RNZ sighted the IRD records, as well as Chi's personal bank statements - which showed no payments were received from the Ministry of Social Development (MSD).
Meanwhile, MSD confirmed that Chi had applied for an emergency benefit as an asylum seeker on 24 July last year, in the company of an agent, and that on the same day it received a request for a "redirection of benefit".
Chi has complained to the Ministry of Social Development and Immigration New Zealand.
MSD South Auckland regional commissioner Jules Lynch said Chi was granted the benefit based on documentation provided.
Lynch said the benefit payments ceased on 29 May this year after a request for confirmation of Chi's ongoing status as an asylum seeker was not provided.
She said the matter was under investigation and was unable to provide further comment.
RNZ made multiple attempts to contact the person Chi said had been acting as his agent, but did not receive answers to questions about Chi's allegations.
Migrant worker unaware of asylum seekers' benefit
Chi arrived on an employer-bound accredited employer work visa in February 2023 to work as a digger operator.
The father of two left his hometown of Ning De in Fujian Province about four years ago to seek better work opportunities abroad - he was working in construction in Japan before coming to New Zealand.
Chi said he paid the equivalent of about $NZ15,000 for the opportunity here, but was dismissed without reason after two months. He settled his dispute with his former employer privately through an employment advocate.
Since losing his job, he has been looking for odd jobs and trying to move to a new visa that would allow him to work for any employer.
In the middle of last year, Chi said he contacted an agent who uses the WeChat ID "nzworker", after seeing a job advertisement online.
He said the man asked to meet him in early July last year, and took his passport, professional certificates and IRD number, which he was told were needed for the job application.
"After I got home that day I regretted giving him those documents, I don't know his real identity, so I tried to get ... back the documents from him, I came up with all sorts of excuses, and he just kept delaying it, I think it must have been two to three days before he returned my things," Chi said.
Chi said the job did not eventuate and he started having doubts about the agent who refused to disclose his real name and did not charge for the employment service, other than $50 for photocopying.
But Chi said he felt he had no evidence and continued to hope the agent would help him with his visa and work situation.
Later in July, Chi said he was asked by the agent to get his passport notarised and to go to an "employment department" for a job interview in South Auckland.
Looking back on the experience, Chi said that was an early warning sign.
"Now I wonder whether that interview in South Auckland was him applying for benefits. He translated for me and I didn't know what was really being said. I can't remember what questions were asked. They also photocopied his passport," he said.
Chi said in the following months he had some conversations with the agent about visa services, but claims the agent wanted up to $8000, which Chi could not afford.
He said he had instead applied for a Migrant Exploitation Protection Visa about the end of last year, but that was not progressed. Instead, he surprisingly received an email from Immigration New Zealand (INZ) in April this year, seeking additional information for an Asylum Seeker work visa.
But Chi said he had no idea about the asylum application, and went to the agent's house to confront him - the address provided to Chi was that of University of Auckland student accommodation, Grafton Hall flats.
He said the agent confirmed he had made an application for Chi, and showed him a drawer with more than 10 passports of other people, assuring Chi that he was experienced in this process.
Chi said he did not know what asylum or refugee means, and what such a visa could mean, and said the agent told him it was a type of open work visa.
The agent then asked him to attend an "interview" in May at the "refugee department", Chi said. He went to the interview in the hope of finding out what the agent was doing to him, and said it felt like an investigation.
Chi said the confusing interactions and suspicions he had about the agent made sense after he hired an accountant in June and found out that his IRD records showed more than $17,000 of income in MSD benefits.
Speaking up out of concern for others
Last month, Chi laid complaints with police, the Ministry of Social Development and Immigration New Zealand (including the INZ Refugee Services Unit). He made the complaints with the help of his employment advocate May Moncur.
"I hope that this information can help expose 'nzworker's' wrongful behaviour, and protect others from being exploited in a similar way," Chi said.
Meanwhile, Moncur said she believed this was not an isolated case, and she had seen evidence to suggest that there could be dozens of other victims.
"I've been approached by other workers - other workers have been approached by the same person - he claimed he could assist them to obtain an open work visa - conditional to that they have to apply for refugee status and apply for benefits and using the benefits to pay for his service," she said.
However, MSD said it had not received other complaints of a similar nature.
Moncur said workers who were desperate for a stable visa were vulnerable to being taken advantage of.
"These workers, they don't know their rights and they don't understand how the system - the immigration systems and visa processing systems, how they work.
"So when they're lured for this kind of open work visa, naturally they prioritise their visa status and they're willing to pay, they're willing to be cooperative, without knowing such actions could be in breach of immigration law and could make themselves victim to such fraudulent actions."
Moncur said there were loopholes in INZ and MSD's systems for approving asylum claims.
"I have concerns, that how could MSD grant this type of benefits so easily without thorough checking, and also this individual - I believe he must have been involved in dozens of similar refugee applications - how could this not be found out," she said.
Moncur showed RNZ WeChat chat records from another Chinese migrant worker who had conversations with "nzworker".
The conversation sighted by RNZ indicated nzworker had offered visa services for "a few hundred dollars" in exchange for claiming benefits on behalf of the worker.
Moncur had also reported this case to INZ and the Refugee Services Unit.
Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment national compliance manager Stephanie Greathead said they had received the complaints and were assessing them.
Greathead said that INZ diligently monitors asylum claim numbers and patterns to identify potential system abuse and actively take measures to address any issues that arise.
Authorities silent on investigation - advocate
While complaints with both INZ and MSD were laid nearly a month ago, Chi said there had been little communication from the officials other than an initial acknowledgement.
Chi said he was contacted for the first time by phone by an MSD investigator on Wednesday 10 July, and he was still clueless about the real identity of the agent.
Meanwhile, police had not contacted him for more information, Chi said.
Moncur said it was disappointing that complainants were kept in the dark about the process of the investigation.
"The lack of information, lack of disclosure discourages victims, and people in the same situations. They would form the impression that no matter what you have done to complain, you are blindfolded [sic]," she said.
"The victim is entitled to know the real identity of that person [the agent], and I believe that the police and MSD would have insights into that, they should know who that person is."
Attempts to contact 'nzworker'
RNZ made multiple attempts to contact "nzworker" through WeChat and two mobile numbers associated with the social media account.
The man refused to answer any questions and said "I am warning you: revealing other people's privacy is illegal. If you keep doing that I will take any reasonable action. F*** off".
RNZ also visited Grafton Hall flats, where Chi was told to visit the agent, to seek a response from the man, but was declined access by the university due to privacy, as the flats were only accessible to student residents.
RNZ reporter Lucy Xia received a threatening phone call days after visiting Grafton Hall flats, from a man who refused to disclose his name - the incident was reported to the police.
The man said he was aware of RNZ's visit to the student accommodation and said they know someone from the Mongrel Mob and that the reporter could expect a "bad result" if they continued to work on the story.
A University of Auckland spokesperson said they had not seen any evidence to suggest any fraudulent activities happening at Grafton Hall.
They said they could not comment on allegations.
"We have no confirmation that this is a university matter, but will of course cooperate with the agencies if we are contacted," a statement said.
