Australian Border Force has found “disturbing” exploitation of foreign workers in its latest operations. Field Operations officers have conducted raids in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland in recent weeks discovering many cases of exploitation.

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In a national operation targeting foreign nationals & acting as unscrupulous labour hire intermediaries facilitating illegal foreign workers,” ABF officers found a 62-year-old Indian national working illegally at a car wash business in the suburb of Browns Plains in Brisbane.

The man, who had a tourist visa, was allegedly being paid $12 per hour cash-in-hand. Tourist visa prohibits working in Australia.

According to the ABF, the person has returned to India and the owner of the car wash is facing further investigation.

ABF Commander of Field Operations, James Copeman said in a statement, “The exploitation of illegal foreign workers is a blight on our society, and through targeted operations such as Battenrun and taskforce Cadena the ABF will continue to disrupt and dismantle the activities of unscrupulous labour hire intermediaries and those who wish to subvert Australia& migration system.”

ABF officers had executed raids on the car wash business on 4 February 2019.

The officers have found many unlawful non-citizens living and working in different parts of the country. Eight people have been detained, including six unlawful non-citizens working outside their visa conditions on a construction site in the Brisbane suburb of Greenslopes on 6 February 2019. They were Malaysian and Chinese nationals. Three have already departed Australia, with investigations into the others continuing, according to the ABF.