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human trafficking

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Honolulu, HAWAII — A Palolo couple has been charged on suspicion of labor trafficking. Police say the two allegedly held a teenage girl captive in their home and forced her to work as a servant. According to HNN, investigators report she was also repeatedly beaten. The couple was identified as...
Joseph Auga Matamata
Wellington, NEW ZEALAND — Joseph Auga Matamata, who had been jailed for 11 years, had his application for leave to appeal dismissed on Thursday. New Zealand's Solicitor-General appealed against the sentence imposed on the 67-year-old.  While the Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal against...
Joseph Matamata appearing via videolink
Wellington, NEW ZEALAND — The jail term given to a man convicted of slavery and trafficking has been called manifestly inadequate. Hastings-based Samoan chief Joseph Auga Matamata was last year given 11 years in prison for bringing 13 Samoans to New Zealand and exploiting them for more than two...
Joseph Auga Matamata
Wellington, NEW ZEALAND — The first person jailed for human trafficking and slavery is appealing his conviction, while the Crown is appealing his sentence. The Hastings-based Samoan chief, Joseph Auga Matamata, was last month sentenced to 11 years in prison for illegally bringing 13 Samoans to New...
Joseph Auga Matamata in court
Napier, NEW ZEALAND — A man’s been jailed for 11 years for luring vulnerable people here from Samoa over more than two decades in New Zealand’s first slavery case. Joseph Matamata was found guilty in March of 13 charges of dealing with slaves and 10 of human trafficking. His convictions are the...
Napier, NEW ZEALAND — A Hastings-based Samoan chief has been found guilty of 10 charges in human trafficking and 13 charges in dealing in slaves. Joseph Auga Matamata, 65, was acquitted on one charge of trafficking. The jury of five men and six women took seven-and-a-half hours to reach the verdict...
Joseph Auga Matamata pictured in front of his house.
Napier, NEW ZEALAND — The jury in the trial of a Samoan chief accused of slavery has retired to consider their verdict. Joseph Auga Matamata, 65, denies 11 charges of human trafficking and 13 charges of slavery relating to 13 Samoan nationals between 1995 and April last year. Summing up the case...
Joseph Auga Matamata,
Napier, NEW ZEALAND — The jury in the trial of a Samoan chief accused of slavery has been urged to consider whether he treated 13 Samoans as his property. Hastings resident Joseph Auga Matamata, 65, denies 24 charges of human trafficking and slavery between 1994 and 2019. Some of the complainants...
Matamata's Hastings home
Napier, NEW ZEALAND — A Samoan chief on trial for slavery says he paid for five of the complainants to come to New Zealand to perform at his mother's birthday party, but they ran away and became overstayers. Hastings resident Joseph Auga Matamata, 65, denies 11 charges of trafficking and 13 charges...
Joseph Auga Matamata.
Napier, NEW ZEALAND — A Samoan man the Crown says was trafficked to New Zealand and used as a slave says he was put to work within hours getting off the plane and was constantly beaten for working too slowly. He is one of 13 complainants to give evidence at the trial of Joseph Auga Matamata, 65, at...

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