Nurul Noor Azman. Photo: RNZ / Lucy Xia
An interpreter who fabricated refugee claims gave migrant workers false hope about having a future in New Zealand, according to immigration's investigation team.
Nurul Noor Azman, 30, has been found guilty of supplying false information in five cases.
They were five of 158 asylum claims that investigators found when they started looking at similar claims made by a group of Indonesian and Malaysian workers.
Most claimed they were in danger from loan sharks - more than 100 of the claims were a fear of gangsters - or from involvement in pyramid schemes.
Some had used identical wording to outline their fear and all but two of the completed cases have been withdrawn or dismissed.
Immigration officials said they noticed striking similarities between the cases which "appeared to be part of a deliberate scheme seeking to exploit New Zealand's refugee and protection system".
They all lived in the same city, had the same legal representative and some lived at the same address.
The Immigration and Protection Tribunal (IPT), which heard appeals in some cases turned down by refugee officers, ruled the migrants were motivated by earning money here rather than because of fear of returning to their home country.
An investigation in Australia has found similar schemes where migrants were able to get work rights by filing bogus asylum claims.
The Age reported this month authorities have linked a migration agency to dozens of unmeritorious claims,...
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