Newshub can reveal the number of full-time staff checking applications from employers wanting to hire migrant workers has halved.
That's despite the recent spotlight on harrowing cases of migrant exploitation.
National leader Christopher Luxon says there should be tougher checks - even though he's vowing to reduce the number of staff at the ministry responsible.
Luxon, who wants to be Prime Minister, blended in visiting Palmerston North's gurdwara after promising to take action on migrant exploitation.
"I'm genuinely passionate about this issue and I want to make sure it doesn't take root in New Zealand," he said.
Migrant exploitation has been in the spotlight following Newshub stories of workers living in squalid conditions.
Some men each paid $50,000 for their work visas but were scammed out of everything.
"When I came here there was not a single day of job," one said.
They're now on migrant exploitation visas.
MP Priyanca Radhakrishnan, the Minister for Ethnic Communities, said she was concerned about the level of migrant exploitation.
"This is a scourge on our society and we want to stamp it out," she said.
But Newshub can reveal the number of full-time staff checking the applications of employers wanting to bring in migrant workers has tumbled. In the third quarter of last year there were 15 full-time staff. In Q3 this year it had halved to seven.
"It speaks to austerity within Immigration New Zealand and the Government needs to adequately resource the department so it can carry out checks on exploitative employers and protect migrant workers," Green Party immigration spokesperson Ricardo Menéndez March? said.
Immigration Minister Andrew Little told Newshub staff were deployed to match demand. When the border re-opened after COVID-19, there was heavy demand for accreditation from employers wanting to bring in migrant workers and now those staff have been redeployed to audit the employers once they've been accredited.
"I can absolutely hand on heart say that any Labour Government will be committed to stamping out migrant exploitation," Radhakrishnan said.
National's promising big staffing cuts at the very ministry that employs immigration staff. But Luxon wants to see an increase in checks on employers.
"I'm not sure that it would be 100 percent [of accredited businesses checked] but you'd need to have a good level of auditing to go on to say 'I'm comfortable that I've got the processes and the checks in place," he said.
And he wants tougher penalties.
"I do want to see much more serious penalties and actions taken against people exploiting workers," Luxon said.
More tough talk on crime, vowing to use his superpowers to fight migrant exploitation - even if the ministry responsible for that task is no longer super-sized.
