Pacific Islanders

Delegations from the Cook Islands, Fiji, Samoa and Tonga were among 3000 visitors from over 80 nations attending the biggest Christian festival in Israel, the week-long Feast of the Tabernacle.

As part of the visit, over 300 Pacific Islanders had been touring the country, visiting historical sites, participating in services and parades and celebrating their faith.

The report by Statistics New Zealand was based on data from the 2018 Census, which showed 39 percent lived in a home that required additional bedrooms for the number of people living in it, which shows no progress has been made since 2013.

Now New Zealand Immigration Minister Michael Wood says he will try and meet some of the workers at the centre of it.

Wood said he was “very open” to meeting the RSE workers whose allegations formed the basis of a damning report by the Human Rights Commission into the scheme.

Sumeo said the Human Rights Commission had found too many stories akin to modern-day slavery and this indicated the problems were far greater than usually appreciated.

RNZ reports a report led by the Commissioner has found major gaps allowing a systemic pattern of human rights abuses.

Those included unreasonable pay deductions, denial of personal and cultural freedoms, poor access to healthcare, and grossly inadequate housing.

Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner Saunoamaali'i Karanina Sumeo told Morning Report the treatment of workers was distressing to witness.

The prevalence in Māori and Pacific peoples is about three times higher than other New

During the campaign trail, Australia's Labor party has proposed a "Pacific Engagement Visa" which would allow about three-thousand people from the Pacific to migrate to Australia annually.

A lottery will draw the winners, with a pathway to permanent residency in Australia the main prize.

"People will enter the lottery, with their family, if they have a family, and if they are lucky enough to be selected, then they'll need to find a job…to come to Australia,” the director of the Development Policy Center at the ANU Professor Stephen Howes said.

They say more could and should have been done to avoid the crisis facing the 2021-2022 harvest season.

From 28 February, New Zealanders will be able to arrive back from Australia and expatriates from the rest of the world can return from 14 March.

Aotearoa was expected to open to foreigners from visa-waiver countries such as the United States no later than July.

For those who benefit from New Zealand's Recognised Seasonal Employers (RSE) Scheme, the move had come "too little too late".

Before COVID- 19, the Pacific was already in crisis. Diabetes, heart disease, and obesity are ravaging the region, all due to what people eat. The numbers are shocking: three Fijians a day undergo diabetes-related amputation, 90 per cent of Tongans are obese, and 40 per cent of the Pacific’s population has been diagnosed with a non-communicable disease (NCD). In fact, NCDs account for 75 per cent of all deaths in the Pacific.

People from the Pacific Islands have long been a part of the Riverland community, with many travelling far from home to take up seasonal work in the South Australian agricultural region.

However, COVID-19 has made that distance from home seem even further, with workers who were already in Australia before the pandemic hit forced to stay longer than expected.

As well, due to the labour shortage across Australia, 800 people from the Pacific Islands have come to the Riverland and quarantined for two weeks before heading out to work on properties across the region.

Part of a series of ‘festival days’ – where the Pacific community is vaccinated together in a welcoming environment – today’s event was the first in the region to be held in a place of worship.

Capital & Coast DHB worked with Tū Ora Compass Health PHO and the church community on the event last week.

“It was wonderful to see so many of our older Pacific members there today, and we look forward to more events like this supporting better health outcomes for our vulnerable communities,” said Tū Ora Pacific Director of Health Henrietta Hunkin-Tagaloa.