Australia: Investigation claims education visa system claims is being rorted to provide cheap labour
Summary
Date Reported: 23 Jul 2023
Location: Australia
Companies
NewStars Education and Migration - RecruiterOther
Not Reported ( Auto repair & maintenance ) - EmployerAffected
Total individuals affected: 1
Migrant & immigrant workers: ( 1 - China , Auto repair & maintenance , Gender not reported )Issues
Reasonable Working Hours & Leisure Time , Contract Substitution , Poverty Wages , Right to Food , Intimidation , Withholding Passports , Restricted mobility , Precarious/Unsuitable Living Conditions , Freedom of Expression , Access to Non-Judicial RemedyResponse
Response sought: Yes, by Sydney Herald
External link to response: (Find out more)
Action taken: In response to questions, NewStars produced documents showing Qi knew he was coming to Australia on an education visa. However, they conceded they had never spoken directly to him. Despite trying a number of times, they were “unable to be answered”, according to a written statement from the migration agent. The statement said that, since the woman claiming to be his sister had provided all the requisite documentation, “we were also satisfied that [she] had full authority acting on behalf of Mr Qi”. It was only later, when Qi’s lawyer approached NewStars for documentation, did they realise “that they are not in biological relationship”.
Source type: News outlet
"Brought to Australia as a ‘student’, Henry was made into a slave", 23 July 2023
If you believe what it says on Yongge “Henry” Qi’s visa, he came to Australia to study. But he never went to the marketing and communication course he was enrolled in, and it was fanciful to think he could: the only English words he knows are “yes” and “no”.
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An investigation by The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and 60 Minutes can also reveal that influencers on Chinese social media apps with hundreds of millions of users are luring people to Australia with false promises of permanent residency.
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Through a translator, Qi said he was lured to Australia by his employer with the promise of free accommodation, food, air tickets and a comfortable salary, but he ended up being treated like a slave.
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The misuse of education visas is one of the rorts that have allowed criminals to traffic large numbers of people into the country to be exploited. A recent report by former police chief Christine Nixon also showed “grotesque” abuses of the visitor and asylum visa systems.
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Dong said other common scams were to bring people to Australia on visitor visas and then have them falsely apply for asylum. These people could then keep working as they appealed to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, which has a years-long backlog of cases, and then to judicial review.
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Participating employers see it as a “path to get cheap labour”, he said.
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