New Zealand First is asking the Government to explain why it is allowing the country to become a sordid South Pacific brothel where the trafficking of underage Māori and Pacific Island girls to work as street prostitutes is common.

A US State Department report released today also alleged that underage Kiwi girls are victims of gang-controlled prostitution trafficking rings, and women from China and South East Asia are being recruited to work as prostitutes and may be at risk of ‘coercive practices'.

RT Hon Winston Peters says the report states the Government has failed to convict and punish any trafficking offenders during the reporting period.

'The trafficking of underage Kiwi girls into prostitution is abhorrent yet John Key and his National cronies are allowing the scum who perpetrate such crimes to roam free.

'The police must be given the resources to properly investigate these matters or New Zealand will go further down the road to becoming the sordid South Pacific Mecca of the child sex industry.”

Source: New Zealand First.