File photo. Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
A man who admitted helping immigrant Brazilian women to illegally work as prostitutes has been sentenced to 10 months' home detention.
Michael James Sloan was charged back in 2019 and has been sentenced in the Auckland District Court today.
He pleaded guilty to charges of aiding and abetting international sex workers operating illegally in New Zealand.
Sloan's charges came after an Immigration New Zealand (INZ) investigation from anonymous tip-offs, saying he was helping Brazilian women to work as prostitutes while holding temporary visas.
According to the Prostitution Reform Act 2003, migrants are not allowed to engage in the sex industry.
INZ said Sloan and his co-defendant acted as booking agents for 15 Brazilian women, arranging advertising, handling customer service and bookings for sex workers on temporary visas.
Their business was conducted out of motels across the central North Island.
Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment national manager immigration investigations James Friend said the sentencing was the result of years of work.
He said although none of the women indicated work exploitation, visa conditions were breached.
"The women came to New Zealand on temporary entry class visas, which are predominately used for short stays such as family visits, tourism, specific work or short study stints.
"Instead, the two individuals facilitated the women to breach their visa conditions and work illegally while they are in the country."
He hoped the sentence acted as a deterrent for people looking to make money off migrants.
"It is a condition of every temporary entry class visa that the visa holder may not provide commercial sexual services whilst in New Zealand.
"These conditions are important because migrants who come to New Zealand on temporary entry class visas and do work in the commercial sex industry are vulnerable to exploitation either from their employers or customers, and they are highly unlikely to make a complaint to the authorities."
Judge Bergseng sentenced Sloan to 10 months home detention, while his co-defendant will be sentenced on 12 April. All of the Brazilians have since been deported
Migrants in the sex industry - the law
Under New Zealand law, only citizens and residents over 18 can engage in the sex industry, despite recommendation from the United Nations that the legislation is harming migrants.
In a 2018 report, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) recommended the government amend Section 19 of the Prostitution Reform Act 2003, which prohibits non-citizens or residents from engaging in the sex industry.
The Committee said Section 19 "may have a negative impact on migrant women" and that "migrant women engaged in prostitution may be exposed to exploitation and are at risk of trafficking, owing to the ban on engaging in prostitution imposed on migrants, which prevents them from reporting abuse for fear of deportation".
In its latest Periodic Report to CEDAW, the Ministry for Women said there was no current work underway to reform the Act.
In the 12 months to April 2023, 30 migrants were declined entry at the border because it was suspected that their intent was to work in the sex industry while on a temporary visa. Thirteen of those were Brazilians.
New Zealand Prostitutes Collective founder Dame Catherine Healey said prohibiting migrants from engaging in the sex industry would not stop them from doing so.
"We have people who come to this country, [and] they want to work as sex workers. It just seems deeply ironic that we have this hostile law that prohibits migrants from doing what they're choosing to do.
"Some people do choose to work in the sex industry and [that] is what these migrants are saying: 'Give us a break, don't make our work illegal'. It's a job like any other."
Healey said the legislation was contributing to exploitation, instead of fighting it.
"We know from research on migrant sex workers that they have reported exploitation and they've been afraid to step forward and come forward and report it simply because their work is considered illegal.
"[The legislation] is full of contradictions - it is really disappointing."
Healey, who worked as sex worker for decades, said prohibiting migrants from sex work only perpetuated the stereotype of sex work.
"We know that, after nearly 21 years of decriminalisation of sex work-related activities in New Zealand, sex workers are better off when the law isn't against them.
"Saying that it's for their own good, that they can't work here as migrant is ridiculous - it's contradictory to what we know in terms of our long experience of having decriminalisation."
She said the government should listen to the United Nations.
"We need to get on with it and do what [CEDAW] advised this government to do, which was to repeal the laws against migrant sex workers because they're causing harm.
"We've had research come out from the international UN committee [showing that] keeping something repressed and illegal doesn't support sex workers, their rights, their safety, their health and well-being, and this includes migrants."