Auckland police have rescued seven Thai women slaves after being tipped off to the alleged crime over a telephone help-line.

Police freed the seven women last night after discovering they were allegedly forced to work for an Auckland company for 13 hours a day for $570 a month.

The Department Of Labour will also be investigating the allegations, an operation which its says will be a top priority.

Police say the women will be returning to Thailand either today or tomorrow.

The allegations follow on from a Christchurch child slave operation, where a businessman held captive two children. The children were kept in confined conditions and it was alleged he was forcing the children to have sex.

When the police discovered the children, the man fled the country.

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>