A group of migrants who have been helping a New Zealand investigation into immigration fraud may soon be forced to leave the country.

The group were some of the 50 Chinese construction workers who claimed a New Zealand-based recruiter had misled them about their pay and working rights.

Last year an arrest warrant was issued for Li Wenshan, also known as Peter Li, who fled New Zealand before charges were laid.

• READ MORE: Other reports on migrant worker exploitation

Li still faced charges for immigration fraud.

Meanwhile, two other people associated with Li face a trial in December this year.

Ten workers are expected to give evidence in court, claiming they were duped.

But last week, the workers were told by Immigration authorities that they would be expected to leave the country within a month of the trial ending.

Undermining probe efforts
Green Party immigration spokesman Ricardo March said the treatment of this group undermined efforts to combat migrant exploitation.

“These workers are not pieces of evidence, they are human beings, and so to put them in a situation where they are treated as expendable once they’re not deemed useful to provide evidence is unjust,” March said.

“And, actually [it] will undermine the government’s intent to create a supportive environment , where workers are able to come forward and participate in processes to hold employers to account.”

March called for the immigration minister to intervene, and to send a strong message that workers holding employers to account would be supported.

One of the men due to give evidence in court, 50-year-old carpenter Sheng Canhong, felt he had been punished for doing the right thing.

“The New Zealand government doesn’t like people who speak up and affect New Zealand’s reputation. Such people are not welcome here,” he said.

Sheng arrived on a work visa in 2018, but was left with no work for the initial months, and was consequently moved to a limited visa to assist with the investigation.

‘No option but to speak up’
“Because of the work situation, we had no option but to speak up. Think about it, we were in Tauranga for three months without work, we had to pay for food and accommodation, where do we get that money?

“When I came here I only had $200. So I owed people money for the living costs, and could only pay back later when I found work,” he said.

The ten workers had also missed out on the chance to apply for one-off residency.

Many of them had tried to move back onto work visas, but their applications failed despite having full time jobs, and they struggled to understand why.

Unite Union director Mike Treen, who has assisted the men since 2019, is also calling for a pathway to residency for this group.

“We ought to be giving them something to compensate them for the hurt, humiliation and exploitation that they’ve suffered while they’re here,” he said.

Treen said the system of temporary visas had fuelled migrant exploitation and needed to change.

System of ‘migrant exploitation’
“Immigration New Zealand [INZ] created a system of migrant labour exploitation, and they throw out the people who have helped expose it,” he said.

“Ten percent of workers in New Zealand were on temporary visas, 30 to 40 percent of workers in construction and hospitality and agriculture and horticulture were on temporary visas.”

INZ referred RNZ News to the minister for comment on the workers’ situation.

Minister Michael Wood said due to legal and privacy reasons he was unable to comment on the circumstances of the workers and the case.

Meanwhile, Li Wenshan is still on the loose and it is uncertain when he will make an appearance in court.

INZ declined to answer questions on whether they were looking to extradite Li.

An INZ spokesperson said for legal and privacy reasons, they would not make further comment on Li.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

When Mike Treen, the national director of the Unite Union in New Zealand, arrived at the airport in Auckland earlier this month, a group of people were anxiously waiting for him at the terminal with Palestinian flags and flowers. They hugged him, chanted for Palestinian freedom and performed the customary indigenous haka dance.

For them, Mike, as all of those who set sail aboard the Freedom Flotilla to Gaza last July, were heroes.

But the truth is Mike Treen and his comrades were not the only heroes for braving the sea with the aim of breaking the hermetic Israeli military blockade on the impoverished and isolated Gaza Strip.

READ MORE: Freedom Flotilla activist: Israel soldiers beat us, stripped us, then robbed us

Without those who were present at the Auckland airport, upon Mike’s arrival on August 1, and without the thousands of supporters all across the world who have mobilised as a community – held numerous meetings, raised funds, created a powerful media discourse, and so on – Treen’s attempted trip to Gaza would not have been possible in the first place.

The first boats to successfully break the Gaza siege, in October 2008 were the Free Gaza and the Liberty. They carried 44 people from 17 countries. The activists wanted to push their countries to acknowledge the illegality of the Israeli blockade on Gaza and to, eventually, challenge the siege.

Their triumphant arrival in Gaza 10 years ago, marked a historic moment for the international solidarity movement, a moment, perhaps, unparalleled. Since then, Israel has launched several massive and deadly wars on Gaza.

The first war took place merely weeks after the arrival of the first boats, followed by another war in 2012 and, the deadliest of them all, in 2014. The siege grew tighter.

Also, since then, many attempts have been made at breaking the siege. Between 2008 and 2016, 31 boats have sailed to Gaza from many destinations, all intercepted, their cargo seized and their passengers mistreated.

The most tragic of these incidents was in May 2010 when the Israeli navy attacked the Mavi Marmara ship – which sailed alongside other boats – killing 10 activists and wounding many more.

Even then, the stream of solidarity boats continued to arrive, not only unhindered by the fear of Israeli retribution, but also stronger in their resolve. Palestinians consider the killed activists as “martyrs” to be added to their own growing list of martyrs.

However, none of the boats made it to Gaza; so why keep on trying?

Last May, I arrived in New Zealand as part of a book tour that took me to other countries as well. However, in New Zealand, a relatively small Pacific island nation with a population that does not exceed five million people, the solidarity with Palestine was exceptional.

I asked about the strong Palestine solidarity work in New Zealand, inquiring with the coordinator for Kia Ora Gaza, Roger Fowler, who, at the time, was busy with final preparations for the Freedom Flotilla.

In New Zealand, he said, “for many years support for the Palestinian struggle lingered, often perceived as being too distant, and falsely portrayed as being ‘too complicated’. But the global outrage at Israel’s murderous attack on the Mavi Marmara-led humanitarian flotilla to Gaza in 2010 was a major turning-point that changed all that.”

Fowler, himself, along with other New Zealand activists joined the Lifeline to Gaza convoy soon after the attack on the Mavi Marmara, reaching Gaza with three ambulances, packed with badly needed medicine, as the Israeli siege also deprived the Strip of hospital equipment and urgently needed medicine.

Coordinating all of this was not a simple task as it also needed to be streamlined with the global efforts for the convoy, which included the dispatching of 140 other ambulances and 300 activists arriving from 30 countries.

There were many moving scenes as Palestinians learned how far we had come from to offer solidarity – their Israel overlords had told the Palestinians for years that nobody cared about them, which is a big line.

Fowler told me.

I also spoke with Mike Treen upon his return from his Gaza sea journey. Treen is a seasoned activist, who works daily at defending the rights of workers from across the country. He sees his struggle for workers’ rights in New Zealand as part and parcel of his global solidarity outlook as well.

“In my role as part of the union movement in this country, I was also able to explain [to New Zealanders] that innocent working people [in Gaza] are the victims of this siege and that Israel has driven unemployment to over 50 per cent for working people – one of the highest rates in the world,” he told me.

Treen, just like Fowler, understands that the boat solidarity is not merely an issue of providing urgently needed supplies, but as a well-coordinated effort at exposing the evils of the Israeli blockade. He said:

“Unless Israel is directly bombing Gaza, the siege and its hideous human implications simply drop off the radar of public consciousness.”

And this is precisely the real mission of the Gaza flotillas: While Israel wants to normalise the Gaza siege as it is currently normalising its Occupation and Apartheid regimes, the solidarity movement has created a counter discourse that constantly foils Israeli plans.

In other words, whether the boats arrive on the Gaza coast or are hijacked by the Israeli navy, it makes little difference.

The power and effectiveness of this kind of solidarity goes even beyond Gaza and Palestine.

“Our involvement in international solidarity endeavours, such as the Freedom Flotillas has, in turn, sparked a resurgence in other important elements of building the strength of the world-wide movement for justice.”

Fowler told me, soon after Treen’s return to New Zealand.

Mike Treen also has his work cut out for him as he is now busy engaging the media and various communities in New Zealand, sharing his experiences on the boat, which led to his arrest, beating, tasering and deportation.

And like the horrific Apartheid regime in South Africa, the Israeli Apartheid will collapse, too, because Palestinians continue to resist and because millions of people, like Mike and Roger, are standing by their side.

Dr Ramzy Baroud is author of The Last Earth: A Palestinian Story and visited New Zealand in May. Mike Treen is speaking in Wellington at PSA House, 11 Aurora Tce, Wellington, 6-9pm, on Friday, August 17.

#FreedomFlotilla

• Activists: Israel takeover of Freedom Flotilla ‘not peaceful’
• What everyone should know about Israel’s siege of Gaza

My name is Yonatan Shapira and I’m an Israeli citizen. I was a captain and a Blackhawk helicopter pilot in the Israeli Air Force.

I never shot anyone and was flying mostly rescue missions but nevertheless, I realised that I was part of a terrorist organisation.

Fifteen years ago in 2003 I organised a group of 27 air force pilots who publicly refused to continue to take part in the oppression of the Palestinian people.

READ MORE: Israel threatens ‘all necessary measures’ against flotilla

Since then I’ve been active in different organisations that struggle against the Israeli occupation and apartheid. I am a member of Boycott from Within – Israeli citizens who support the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions.

This is my fourth attempt to break the Gaza blockade from the sea.

My message to the Israeli soldiers who are now training and preparing to board our boats and arrest us:

“Think about what you will tell your grandchildren in many years from now and not about what your friends will say about you today.

“Refuse to take part in this ongoing war crime. Refuse to continue murdering people who are locked in the biggest prison in the world.

“I was once one of you and I know that among you there are some who can still think.

“Refuse to be the guards of the Gaza ghetto.”

Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, has warned the body that his country “will use all necessary measures to protect its sovereignty should the flotilla with 45 peace activists, parliamentarians, trade unionists and journalists now sailing to Gaza from Norway attempt to breach the illegal Gaza blockade.

The Freedom Flotilla coalition includes members from 15 countries – among them Mike Treen from New Zealand – and began the sea voyage on May 15.

Asia Pacific Report, through the Pacific Media Centre, is sharing Gaza Freedom Flotilla coverage with Kia Ora Gaza and Scoop Media.

• Gaza teen dies after being shot by Israeli borders troops
• Gaza Freedom Flotilla 2018

After months of preparation and training, the Freedom Flotilla is ready to depart for Gaza today.

The converted fishing trawler I am travelling on, the Al Awda (Return), along with three sailing yachts have been under constant guard as previous flotillas have been sabotaged in foreign ports by the Israeli secret services trying to stop the attempts to break the blockade.

I have met up with my fellow Kiwi of Palestinian descent, Youssef Sammour, a sailor and yacht engineer currently working in Dubai, who leaves Palermo after 45 days at sea.

READ MORE: Freedom Flotilla coalition 2018 mission

He has been sailing on the flotilla yacht Freedom since Amsterdam. If the boats are intercepted and the crew arrested they will all be subjected to a 10-year ban on re-entering Israel.

As a third generation refugee, Youssef does not want to rule out the possibility in the future of visiting his homeland.

Youssef considers himself a Kiwi as he has spent half his life in New Zealand at school and university. His father Khalil got work in New Zealand as a surgeon at Greymouth Hospital on the West Coast of the South Island.

My mum, Joan, grew up in Blackball, a small mining town just outside of Greymouth, and went to school in Greymouth. My Granddad, Walter Kirk, was a miner and a unionist, and part of the “red” Federation of Labour, the first national union federation formed in 1920 which had its national headquarters in Blackball.

Famous figures
Famous figures of the New Zealand Labour movement – Paddy Webb, Bob Semple, Walter Nash, Harry Holland – were household names, friends or colleagues.

Granddad was also one of the first, if not the first, Kiwi to play rugby league professionally in Australia for at least one season in the early 1900s.

For mum, Blackball was home, and it was where she wanted her ashes spread when she died which we were able to do five years ago. The only problem is she wanted them spread at the top of a steep mountain range behind Blackball known as The Creases.

I was back on May Day this year to commemorate the fifth anniversary of her death.

Youssef’s dad didn’t actually want to go to Greymouth – too small, isolated, and cold. He left his wife and son in Auckland and visited when he could.

Yet three years later, by the time he had finished his contract in Greymouth, Youssef says his father left in tears as he had come to love the place his colleagues, patients, and the wonderful people of Greymouth.

Youssef’s family’s story is both typical and special. Youssef’s dad was born on May 15, 1948 – the day known in Palestinian history as the Nakba – the day of “catastrophe”. The Jewish settlers proclaimed the state of Israel and presided over the expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians.

Traumatised by events
Youssef’s grandmother went into labour while on the road from Palestine to Lebanon. She gave birth to Khalil and was so traumatised by the events that she could not breast feed her child. They were forced to crush almonds for the milk to feed him along the way.

His parents were childhood friends, growing up in a refugee camp in Lebanon. Dad went to Cairo to become a surgeon and Samira, Youssef’s mum stayed in Beirut to study Chemistry. They ended up meeting again a few years later as they found themselves working in the same hospital in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

They are still happily married today, Khalil is in his last year of work as chief of the surgical department in a private hospital in the Emirates.

They are looking to move back to NZ and finally get some well earned R&R. For a Palestinian family, home can be Beirut, Auckland or Greymouth, but often never Haifa, the home of their birth, even to scatter their ashes as I was able to do for my mum.

My own place on the Al Awda, I am taking over from another young Palestinian scholar, Awni Farhat, who grew up and Gaza and completed a master’s degree in human rights conflict studies in the Netherlands, but can’t return like a normal person to visit his family.

Such are the many small, but cruel, ironies of life in occupied Palestine.

Al Awda was a Norwegian fishing trawler. Scandinavians have been strong supporters of the decade-long campaign to breach the blockade from sea. Like New Zealand, these countries have strong fishing industries.

Blockade inhumanity
One aspect of the inhumanity of the blockade is stopping the fishing people in Gaza from plying their trade – even within the 12-mile maritime boundaries.

A reign of terror is maintained. Boats are fired on several times a day, dozens of fishers are wounded and a few killed each year. Just this last few weeks a limit of three nautical miles has been imposed. Several boats in Gaza that were planning to meet our small armada were singled out to be bombed in port.

Swedish sailors and campaign supporters were instrumental supplying the three yachts – Freedom, Mairead and Falestine – that have been part of the flotilla from the beginning of the journey in May. A Danish Socialist MP, Mikkel Gruner, is on the Al Awda. We have a professional chef from a leading restaurant as our personal cook.

Torstein Dahle, a city council member in the port city of Bergen and leader of the Red Party in Norway has spearheaded getting a fishing boat ready that can be donated to the fishers of Gaza and be able to carry the crew and volunteers to break the blockade.

This work to transform the ship began in January this year. A volunteer team of engineers, mechanics, carpenters and electricians have laboured for hundreds of hours to complete the work in time for the sailing part of the journey to begin.

In many ways this is a project of direct solidarity from workers and fishers in Scandinavia to the fishers of Gaza. They have generously allowed some others to join them because we have our own positions in our own societies and can amplify their message across the globe.

Workers intervene
Other workers have intervened to ensure the boats can reach their goal. The port authorities near Lisbon, Portugal, tried to prevent the ship’s entry until the port workers union Sindicato Dos Estivadores E Da Actividade Logistica told them they would have a serious problem if they tried.

That has been the pattern through the journey. Usually national governments and the police try to make life hard, while local governments and the people’s organisations welcome the boats.

One yacht was rammed and damaged by French police boats in Paris. In Palermo where we are at the moment, the mayor, Leoluca Orlando, who comes from people’s campaigns against corruption and Mafia control of the Church and the state in Sicily has announced that port will be renamed in remembrance to the historic Palestinian national leader Yasser Arafat who died, or more likely murdered by Israel, in 2004.

He is also fighting to preserve the city as a place of safe haven for refugees and beat back attempts by the right-wing and fascist forces in Italy to blame refugees for the social problems created by the capitalist Europe project which has resulted in nothing but austerity, welfare cuts and growing unemployment for working people across Europe.

The Freedom Flotilla participants were also warmly welcomed by thousands of Italian and Spanish supporters of refugee rights and open borders in a joint march through the fantastically beautiful city at night.

Everything is on Mediterranean time here. The place comes alive from 7pm when many central city streets are closed to cars, and families (including young children which made my Anglo-Kiwi mind a bit uncomfortable) enjoy meals on street tables until late at night.

Palermo is the capital city of Sicily and has a history going back 2700 years. It has been governed and settled by Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Normans. It is a historical and cultural centre for the meeting points between west and east in Europe.

Ambassador’s visit
The Ambassador from Palestine to Italy, Dr Mai Alkaila, came to visit on July 18 during our training session to express solidarity and support. There was an unplanned and tearful reunion with Dr Swee Ang, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon; author of From Beirut to Jerusalem and the ship’s doctor.

Dr Ang’s journey with Palestine began as a volunteer surgeon in Gaza Hospital in Beirut’s Sabra Shatila Palestinian refugee camp in 1982. About three weeks after her arrival, more than 3000 of them were massacred.

These events traumatised the young surgeon and Dr Ang describes how the love and generosity of the Palestinian people helped bring her back to a purposeful meaningful life – but now one forever intertwined with the fate of the Palestinian people.

Dr Ang served in Gaza in 1988-89 during the first Intifada and again in 2009 after the Israeli invasion of Gaza in December 2008 that left thousands of casualties.

The ambassador generously offered to bring lunch the next day which she duly delivered and then served it herself – bodyguards discretely in the background. That day she spoke to Youssef and myself to say how she had delivered a special message of thanks to the NZ Embassy in Rome for New Zealand taking up the sponsorship of a UN Security Council resolution in December 2016 critical of the Israeli settlements in the occupied territories.

This resolution was significant because the US abstained rather than veto it as they usually did anything critical of Israel. This is not a new stance for New Zealand but one of the original sponsors had pulled out and it seems that then NZ Foreign Minister Murray McCully agreed to sponsor it without checking with the Prime Minister.

It led to Israel withdrawing its ambassador to New Zealand and barring the New Zealand ambassador in Israel. Diplomatic relations were restored in June 2017 after then Prime Minister Bill English wrote a cowardly letter to Israel expressing “regret” over the fallout from the resolution.

Peters not happy
The current Foreign Minister and NZ First leader, Winston Peters, who has a strong personal bias towards Israel, was not happy. The resolution features in the Labour-New Zealand First coalition agreement, which states a commitment to “record a Cabinet minute regarding the lack of process followed prior to the National-led government’s sponsorship of UNSC2334”.

Ambassador Alkaila also expressed her delight at the decision of NZ artist Lorde to boycott performing in Israel.

A city reception was also held and then the mayor and the ambassador joined and spoke at a support function in the evening of July 19.

We have had intensive training from US professionals in non-violent resistance. Tips have been given from those arrested, abused, or tasered by the Israeli military on previous expeditions on what might be expected.

Only one previous Gaza blockade shift saw casualties. In 2010, a six-boat flotilla led by a Turkish ship the MV Mavi Marmara, with almost 500 passengers was assaulted in the middle of the night and 10 were killed and dozens injured. This led to a prolonged diplomatic crisis between Turkey and Israel. Turkey as a NATO member is one of the few majority Muslim countries to maintain friendly relations with Israel.

Since then Israel has usually just boarded the ships, towed them to port and deported the participants after a few days of questioning.

My fellow passengers on the Al Awda are an extraordinary group. I hope to have a chance to talk to them more during our journey and get to tell their stories over the next few weeks.

Blockade must end
Whatever happens on this trip to Gaza, the siege and blockade will end.

lsrael is increasingly revealing its racist, authoritarian character. There are 13 million Palestinian people. Seven and a half million are displaced or in exile. Six and a half million Palestinians continue to live in historic Palestine alongside six and a half million people of Jewish descent.

A way must, and will be found to destroy the apartheid system that seeks to preserve the ethnic superiority of one group over another and allow that majority of people in the the region who want to live in peace and security to do so.

Mike Treen is the New Zealand representative on the 2018 international Freedom Flotilla which is determined to break through Israel’s illegal blockade of Gaza. The national director of the Unite Union and a veteran human rights defender is reporting here in the first of a series of reports for Kia Ora Gaza. The reports are being shared on Asia Pacific Report by arrangement.

• Kiwis on board Gaza Freedom Flotilla
• Donate for the Gaza Freedom Flotilla

Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk

Veteran New Zealand human rights campaigner and Unite union leader Mike Treen leaves this week to join the 2018 international Freedom Flotilla challenging Israel’s 11-year-old illegal naval blockade of Gaza.

Treen, who will join Al Awda, one of four flotilla vessels, for the final leg to Gaza said it was a “great honour” to be asked to participate and contribute to a deeper solidarity between workers in New Zealand and Palestine.

“We need an international campaign to isolate apartheid Israel in the same way we did against apartheid South Africa,” Treen said.

“I see my participation in this trip as a logical continuation and extension to my participation in the Biko Squad against the Springbok tour of New Zealand.”

Supported by the New Zealand/Palestine solidarity group Kia Ora Gaza and hundreds of donors, Treen will be New Zealand’s representative on this humanitarian solidarity mission.

He follows in the wake of Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson who joined the Women’s Boat to Gaza two years ago.

Treen is due to fly to Sicily this weekend to board the leading flotilla boat Al Awda, a former Norwegian fishing trawler.

‘Safe passage’ appeal
Kia Ora Gaza has written to Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters, asking him to demand that Israel allow the flotilla “safe and unhindered passage” to Gaza.

The flotilla, carrying prominent human rights defenders from more than 20 countries, and a quantity of much-needed medical supplies, expects to be intercepted and detained by the Israeli navy before reaching their destination, as most previous efforts have.

If they break through the blockade and reach Gaza, the boats will be donated to the Gaza fishermen. The flotilla’s progress can be followed on Facebook and the website www.kiaoragaza.net

There was worldwide outrage when eight years ago Israeli commandos raided a similar Gaza-bound peace flotilla in international waters, killing 10 civilians and wounding dozens more.

Often referred to as “the world’s largest open-air prison”, Gaza is home to 2 million Palestinians, most of whom are impoverished refugees confined to the tiny coastal enclave by Israel’s siege.

Israel, a colonial occupier with one of the strongest military forces in the world, bombards Gaza with sophisticated weapons as an on-going illegal act of “collective punishment”.

Gaza has no army, navy or air force. Medical and other civil services are in a state of near collapse.

Tighter restrictions
This week Israel has imposed tighter restrictions on Gaza at the only border crossing for goods, prohibiting all imports and exports. It has also enforced a reduced fishing zone from nine nautical miles to six.

“These attempts to strangle the lives and hopes of millions of human beings is a war crime that should be met with worldwide condemnation and action to break the blockade now,” said Treen.

“The time for worldwide action by governments and civil society is now. I hope my participation in this new attempt to break the naval blockade can contribute towards that goal.”

A farewell function is planned for Thursday, 6.30pm at the Auckland Trades Hall, 147 Great North Rd, Grey Lynn, Auckland. Supporters also plan to see him off at the Auckland International Airport on Friday night at 9pm.

• Kia Ora Gaza