7. Question No. 7—ImmigrationERICA STANFORD (National—East Coast Bays) to the Minister of ImmigrationQuestion No. 7—Immigration7. ERICA STANFORD (National—East Coast Bays) to the Minister of Immigration: What percentage of all accredited businesses have had a post-accreditation check completed since the Accredited Employer Work Visa was introduced and what percentage of Accredited Employer Work Visas logged with Immigration New Zealand have had a verification check completed since applications opened?Hon ANDREW LITTLE (Minister of Immigration): To the first part of the member's question 27947 accredited employer applications have been approved 609 post-accreditation checks have been completed and 1723 are in progress. Therefore 2.2 percent of all approved accredited employer applications have had a post-accreditation check completed and a further 6 percent are in progress since the Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) was introduced on 23 May last year. To the second part of the member's question 100 percent of approved work visas logged with Immigration New Zealand have been assessed by an immigration officer.Erica Stanford: Point of order Mr Speaker. The second part of my question was quite specific and asked how many of the work visas logged with Immigration New Zealand have had a verification check completed and that was not answered or addressed.SPEAKER: I think it was but you can use your supplementaries to explore that.Erica Stanford: How can he claim that the AEWV will reduce migrant exploitation when Immigration New Zealand have approved 64000 work visas while only conducting verification checks on 2330 of these a little over 3 percent?Hon ANDREW LITTLE: The member's facts are wrong which is unfortunately par for the course for her. In excess of 77000 visas have been given to workers under the Accredited Employer Visa work program.Erica Stanford: Point of order Mr Speaker. I seek leave to table an email from Immigration New Zealand to an immigration advisor stating that of the 63800 visas that have been granted only—SPEAKER: Leave is sought for that purpose. Is there any objection?Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.Chris Bishop: In other words you're wrong as per usual.SPEAKER: Order! Be quiet.Erica Stanford: Supplementary question?SPEAKER: Yes you can have one.Erica Stanford: Thank you Mr Speaker. When he told the media that very few" of the 27000 accredited employers are participating in fraud how does he know this given just 2.2 percent of accredited employers have had post-accreditation checks completed and in light of the increasing number of migrant exploitation stories in the media Immigration New Zealand have now conceded they simply do not know how widespread migrant exploitation is?Hon ANDREW LITTLE: There's a number of issues in that question but of the 27892 accredited employers they weren't all accredited on day one. That number is as at 14 August this year and the other relevant figure as at 14 August this year is 80576 Accredited Employer Work Visa applications have been revealed. And so the member has revealed in her question today just how out of date she is. But to answer the particular point that I think the member was making the post-accreditation checks are happening and that is why a number have lost their accreditation a number have been suspended and a number are under investigation. That is what happens. I'm just intrigued by that member who suddenly wants a lot more checks and processes in light of her comment only a couple of months ago when she said she was "concerned about the over-regulation of these businesses under the accredited employer visa scheme." The member is flaky.Erica Stanford: When he stated in the Estimates debate that "what we are seeing now is reported levels of migrant exploitation that are in fact what they always were;" can he explain if the reports on Monday night of 40 migrant workers whose jobs never materialised living in a three-bedroom overcrowded home for months with no money begging for food before out of desperation calling the police is as it has always been?Hon ANDREW LITTLE: The events that have transpired in relation to that group of workers who have been the subject of publicity in the last few days have been absolutely horrific and have been absolutely tragic and they are the victims of a scam and a fraud that now clearly crosses boundaries. Sadly migrant worker exploitation and the exploitation of for example students on visas in this country is tragically not new. What we need to make sure of is that we have systems that keep abreast of it and enable our enforcement officials and authorities to enforce compliance with the law and that is what is happening right now with that case and the other cases that have come to light—most of which have been notified through the renewed notification processes that this Government put in place two years ago because we knew that migrant worker exploitation was hugely underreported and has been for years."