Couple pleads guilty to harbouring illegal immigrant

A couple who allegedly forced a Fijian woman into working for them has pleaded guilty to harbouring a non-citizen.

Isikeli Feleatoua Pulini, left, and Malavine Pulini outside the Brisbane District Court. Picture: AAP

A Brisbane couple who allegedly forced a Fijian woman into working for them for eight years has pleaded guilty to harbouring a non-citizen but not-guilty to human trafficking and forced labour.

During the opening of a trial in Brisbane’s District Court today, the jury was told that the woman, from a poor family in Fiji, had worked for Malavine and Isikeli Feleatoua Pulini in their native Tonga from 2001 to 2006.

They allegedly convinced her to follow them to Australia to work as a live-in nanny and cleaner in their suburban Ashgrove home and she was paid between $150 and $250 a fortnight.

When she arrived on a tourist visa in 2008, the Pulinis allegedly took her passport, saying they needed it to get her a working visa.

The passport was not returned to the woman until 2013 — three years after it had expired.

Barrister Ben Power, acting for the department of public prosecutions, said the woman was frightened about what would happen to her if she revealed the truth to authorities and was effectively enslaved due to the couple’s “deception”.

“She was fearful of what would be done to her if she revealed she was an illegal immigrant,” Mr Power said.

“She couldn’t gain financial independence.”

Mr Pulini, a civil engineer, was earning about $110,000 a year at the time while his wife, a public servant, was paid $65,000.

Mr Power said the couple had a “secret hiding in plain sight”.

“One thing was missing from their life, they felt they needed a live-in domestic servant, like they had in Tonga,” Mr Power said.

“They had deceived her (the victim) about getting her a proper visa if she handed over her Fijian passport when they said Mr Pulini knew someone in immigration who could get her a visa.

“She will tell you she was frightened about what would happen if she fled from this position.”

Mr Pulini allegedly told the Australian Federal Police that the woman “disappeared from their house in 2016 without saying goodbye”.

“He assumed she had left and he believed that her friends or someone else had told her he and Mrs Pulini were bad people,” Mr Power said.