New Zealand government to introduce cheap labour scheme for Pacific Island workers

The six Pacific countries initially identified to supply the workers are; Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Kiribati, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. Fiji citizens, however, have since been excluded under sanctions imposed by New Zealand on Fiji following the military coup there last December.

Details announced by Immigration Minister David Cunliffe and Employment Minister David Benson-Pope indicate that the scheme has been set up to provide a pool of cheap labour for New Zealand employers. Workers are likely to receive only the minimum adult wage of $NZ 11.25 per hour, plus basic food and lodging. They will be classified as temporary migrants and forced to return home after seven months. Workers will have to have a specific job offer from a New Zealand employer who qualifies under the scheme. Employers will only be required to pay half the worker’s airfare.

The government has promoted the policy as recognising New Zealand’s “special relationship with and commitment to the Pacific region”, claiming it will lead to the up-skilling of Pacific workers and contribute to “Pacific development”. In fact the opposite is the case—New Zealand is using its position as a minor imperial power in the region to cynically exploit desperately impoverished and oppressed Pacific peoples for its own economic ends.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2007/feb2007/newz-f20.shtml