A New Zealand court has jailed a Bangladeshi couple for exploiting migrant workers at their sweets shop in Auckland, reports bdnews24 citing local media.
Auckland District Court sentenced Mohammed Atiqul Islam alias Kafi Islam to four years and seven months in jail and his wife Nafisa Ahmed to two years and six months on Friday.
Both New Zealand citizens, Kafi and Nafisa exploited five migrants in their Royal Sweets and Cafe, also known as the Royal Bengal Cafe, at Sandringham between 2014 and 2016.
They were both found guilty of a number of exploitation and immigration charges.
Kafi, a company director in his late 30s, and Nafisa, an accountant in her mid 30s, have a young son together.
Both university educated people, the pair were aware of New Zealand's minimum wage laws, but paid the workers $6.0 per hour.
Their crimes were unearthed after two chefs, brought over from Bangladesh to make Bengali sweets, sold in their cafe and in a stand at an Asian food court, made complaints to New Zealand authorities about the conditions imposed on them, according to the New Zealand Herald.
The chefs' passports were also confiscated immediately after they arrived in New Zealand from Bangladesh after responding to advertisements for work in Bengali newspapers, Radio New Zealand or RNZ reported.
The couple manipulated the workers in a “selfishly calculated and premeditated” way for commercial gain, the court observed, according to the reports.
One exploited worker complained "even in Bangladesh they do not work like we did”.
“Sweet shop was a sweatshop,” screamed the headline of New Zealand news site Stuff’s story on the verdict.
“'Remorseless' couple jailed for exploitation after seizing worker passports,” it added.
