MEDIA

Saving Sione: Children being adopted overseas, trafficked to work in New Zealand

A Radio New Zealand investigation into children trafficked into New Zealand through overseas adoption.

The story

RNZ documents children adopted from overseas, primarily the Pacific and Southeast Asia, who were brought into New Zealand and subjected to slavery-like conditions, forced labour and abuse by adoptive parents, some with criminal histories. One twelve year old, known as Sione, was withdrawn from school and forced into domestic servitude behind locked gates.

A known loophole

Immigration New Zealand does not require police checks on adoptive parents, and documented cases span more than 25 years. One man convicted in 1999 had raped his adopted thirteen year old daughter; Joseph Auga Matamata had violence convictions before adopting three boys in 2016.

Oranga Tamariki alerted ministers to the loophole in 2018, 2019 and again in 2021.

Why it matters for Aotearoa

The investigation exposes a gap where immigration, adoption and child protection systems meet.

It is precisely the kind of systemic weakness that a coordinated sector response exists to close.