World Day Against Trafficking in Persons underscores the urgent need for an amendment of child trafficking definition

On World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, World Vision New Zealand is calling for a law change which amends the definition of child trafficking in New Zealand.

New Zealand's approach to combating trafficking in persons remains inadequate. The urgent need to align our laws with international standards and strengthen prosecutions is clearer than ever, especially as worker exploitation grows and the line between exploitation and trafficking becomes increasingly blurred.

In the recently-released 2024 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report, New Zealand has once again received a Tier 2 status — a designation shared with countries such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia, and Nigeria.

This ranking reflects New Zealand’s failure to meet minimum standards for addressing trafficking, a significant concern given our low prosecution rate for these crimes. To date, there have been fewer than 10 prosecutions for trafficking in persons in New Zealand.

The recent Universal Periodic Review of Human Rights before the United Nations also underscored how New Zealand falls short in this area, with 15 countries recommending that New Zealand intensify its efforts against trafficking in persons.

In the review, countries urged continued strengthening of anti-trafficking measures and the introduction of effective legislation, along with increased efforts to investigate and prosecute trafficking cases and impose adequate penalties.

Current New Zealand laws require Attorney-General consent to prosecute trafficking in persons crimes, complicating efforts to secure justice.

Maungakiekie MP Greg Fleming's Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences Amendment Bill recently pulled from the Members’ Bills Ballot aims to increase penalties for slavery offences to international standards.

This is a welcome step forward, but stringent penalties are just one part of the solution.? The bigger question needs to be: “Why is it so hard to secure a successful trafficking in persons prosecution in New Zealand?”

In some cases, our trafficking in persons law is not fit for purpose – one exact example being the legal definition of child trafficking.

New Zealand has never identified a child trafficking victim.? This is not due to a lack of victims, but because of our restrictive legal definitions.

To illustrate the discrepancy, consider these similar cases:

In New Zealand, A 61-year-old man lures a 15-year-old girl from Wellington to New Plymouth under the pretence he’s a 22-year-old surfer. He pays for her bus fare and two weeks after she arrives, she begins working as a sex worker from the man’s house and he takes a large share of her earnings. The 15-year-old girl can’t leave because “she owes him.” This man is convicted of six charges under the Prostitute Reform Act 2003 and Crimes Act provisions relating to providing commercial sexual services of a minor.

In Canada, two girls 15 and 16 years old were also lured into a relationship with an older man. He arranges for the girls to work for him as sex workers and when they try to leave, he tells them they have to pay an exit fee of C$100,000. This case is prosecuted as a trafficking in persons case, as well as providing sexual services of a minor.

International law defines trafficking as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring, or receipt of a child for exploitation, even without coercion or deception. However, New Zealand’s Section 98D of the Crimes Act 1961 deviates from this definition, necessitating coercion or deception for a trafficking offense, and often relegates child sex trafficking cases to the Prostitution Reform Act 2003 (PRA).

This Act, with penalties up to seven years’ imprisonment, is less severe than those for trafficking offenses under the Crimes Act, which means? traffickers receive lighter sentences in New Zealand.? Furthermore, it obscure the true extent of trafficking in New Zealand.

The PRA’s handling of child sex trafficking also means that such cases are not counted as trafficking in person crimes, which hampers efforts to understand and address the scope of trafficking in Aotearoa New Zealand. Without accurate data, resources for frontline workers and awareness of child trafficking remain inadequate.

World Vision, in collaboration with the Human Trafficking Research Coalition, has long advocated for urgent reform of the definition of child trafficking. Aligning our laws with international standards and removing barriers to prosecution will ensure New Zealand not only upholds strong human rights values but also has effective mechanisms to combat and prevent trafficking in persons for children.

On this World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, it’s important to once again commit to protect New Zealand’s children and ensure that our trafficking in person laws are fit for purpose to allow for prosecution of child trafficking for sexual exploitation.

By Rebekah Armstrong, World Vision’s Head of Advocacy and Justice.

Learn more about the report here or learn more about our work to address child trafficking in New Zealand here: https://www.worldvision.org.nz/stories/advocacy/strengthening-new-zealands-child-trafficking-defi/.

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