Our first case of human trafficking.

Come to New Zealand, they were told, and earn seven times a week what you would in Fiji.

Faroz Ali, a Fijian national and a New Zealand resident, was the man behind this scheme.

He forced people to work illegally long hours on his construction sites and kiwifruit orchards in Tauranga. He didn't pay them the minimum wage. He didn't pay some of them at all. They slept on the floor in basements. No bedding. No blankets.

Some said they worked every day for three weeks and when they asked for their wages, Ali told them they owed him for food, rent and petrol, because they were driven to the orchard each day.

Most have returned home empty-handed to their villages in Fiji where they earn around $130 a week, but many borrowed up to $4000 to travel to New Zealand. They'll never pay that back.

It's awful. Truly. Greed prompted this man to exploit and manipulate people, to come up with this elaborate human trafficking scam, for his own financial gain.

Who would have thought in New Zealand that we'd be reporting on this? Human trafficking.

It's something that happens in South-east and central Asia, isn't it? And in eastern Europe? But here? Surely not.

The immigrants were promised work visas but arrived and were issued a one month visitor visa.

And so in a matter of weeks they were here illegally. Still working for Faroz Ali. Still working for nothing, but still here and with no way paying for a ticket to get them home.

Some industries are clearly more vulnerable to exploitation and human trafficking -- horticulture, viticulture, agriculture, hospitality -- particularly restaurants -- small scale construction, and also the sex industry too.

And this case, I suspect, could well be the tip of the iceberg.

So how do you stop it? Or at least discourage it? One option would be to issue identity cards for those in these specific industries. Then, any inspector could walk onto a kiwifruit farm or a construction site or into a restaurant and ask to see the ID card. That would reveal that the person had a work visa and was entitled to be there.

And if they don't have one? Who do you penalise? Not the worker. The employer.

Faroz Ali is an awful man, but he won't be alone. There will be more people in this country, trafficking people and exploiting people for their own personal gain.

Identity cards might be a way to -- at the very least -- curb this awful situation.