Labour trafficking is leading to a growing underclass of undocumented workers

According to the International Labour Organisation, illicit labour trafficking is a global criminal business worth around $150 billion a year, with some 25 million people currently being forced to provide their labour to farms, sex shops, construction sites and other occupations under heavily exploited circumstances.

Limiting labour trafficking is a constant challenge for all immigration authorities – it is no different for Australia’s Department of Home Affairs and Australian Border Force. When I was in a former version of the Department of Home Affairs, dealing with new labour trafficking scams was an ongoing part of the job.

Limiting labour trafficking is a constant challenge for all immigration authorities.Credit: Getty Images

One common scam was out of Malaysia where organisers would lure poor labourers with the promise of a well-paying job in Australia if they would enter into a “debt bondage” arrangement whereby a large cut of their meagre wages would be paid to the organisers.

These highly vulnerable people were brought to Australia on a visitor visa known as the Electronic Travel Authority. The organisers would lodge asylum applications on their behalf. The asylum applications brought with them a bridging visa and work rights. Even though the labourers and the organisers knew the asylum claim would eventually be refused, the fact the labourers had work rights was enough to convince Australian employers, usually farmers but also sex shop operators, to give the trafficked people a job.

We knew the key to preventing these scams from growing rapidly was to quickly initiate investigations into the organisers. At the bottom of the criminal hierarchy of these organisers were often unregistered and sometimes registered migration agents and sometimes education agents. But none ever put their names to the asylum applications they organised.

In addition, we processed the unmeritorious asylum applications quickly and returned the trafficked people to Malaysia. Rapid processing and removal made the scam uneconomic as there was not enough time for the organisers to generate a return on investment. Employers were warned and often fined for employing undocumented labour.

Rarely did we allow these scams to reach more than a hundred or so asylum applications before the organisers were forced to move onto another target nation. When the same scam re-emerged in 2014-15, I thought former immigration minister Scott Morrison and his successor Peter Dutton would close it down quickly given their border protection rhetoric.

But no effective action was taken. Asylum applications from Malaysian nationals just kept growing, peaking at more than 9000 in 2017-18. The scam quickly spread to nationals from China. It only slowed once international borders were closed.

By that stage, the surge in asylum applications had started to move onto the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT). The total number of asylum cases at the AAT is now around 40,000 and rising. With current resources, there is no chance of the AAT getting on top of this caseload.

Few of the organisers appear to have been investigated. Processing times continue to blow out and the backlogs create a honeypot for people from other nations to also use the asylum system to delay departure. Pacific Island nationals brought to Australia to work legally on farms are increasingly running away from their employers and applying for asylum.

Despite the bulk of these asylum applications being refused at the primary stage and at the AAT, only around 10 refused asylum seekers are voluntarily removed from Australia each month and less than one per month involuntarily. As a result, the number of unsuccessful asylum seekers in Australia – people with no work rights and no means of support – has grown to more than 30,000 and rising.

Farmers in particular continue to employ unsuccessful asylum seekers and Australian Border Force appears to have largely ceased warning employers about using undocumented labour. But farmers are understandably so concerned about employing undocumented labour that former agriculture minister David Littleproud proposed an amnesty for undocumented workers. This was quickly slapped down by former attorney-general Michaelia Cash.

Ironically, Cash said “an amnesty would send a dangerous message that it is OK to flout our strong visa and migration rules, principles that this government has worked incredibly hard over a period of time to secure”. She made no mention of the massive labour trafficking scam that led to Littleproud’s call for an amnesty, nor did she offer any solution other than to let the number of undocumented workers continue to grow and be exploited by organised crime.

Sweeping the issue under the carpet is unfortunately the same approach taken to this issue in North American and European nations.

Unless the Albanese government finds a way to deal with the issue, Australians may need to accept that we will also now have a large and growing underclass of undocumented workers who live and work in the shadows of society often exploited by organised criminals.