In October, ABC News reported that Indonesian migrants on ‘Work and Holiday’ visas in Australia experienced abusive working conditions on a remote farm in Darwin.

The article says there has been a rise in Indonesian workers migrating to Australia on the Work and Holiday Visa amid an increase in Indonesian influencers posting about their experiences online. The workers highlight this content is often misleading.

The workers migrated after seeing an advertisement on Facebook asking people to pick grapes, after which they contacted the employment agent. They were told by the agent that they would be harvesting and packing cucumbers, but instead upon arrival had to do heavy manual labour renovating the farm. The agent also took cuts out of their pay, and their supervisor was verbally abusive. The workers also experienced poor living conditions and a lack of access to water. They struggled to contact anyone because the farm was too remote to pick up signal.

The workers managed to leave the farm after walking away until their phones found reception.

ABC attempted to contact both the employment agent and the owner of the farm, but did not receive a response from either.

In November, the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre invited Meta to respond to the article. Meta’s response can be read in full below.