Illegal workers The Australian 24 May 2006

WED 24 MAY 2006

John Stapleton
TWENTY ONE illegal workers from Malaysia, including seven illegal non-citizens, were picked up in the Riverina area this week after authorities stopped a bus on the Sturt Highway near the NSW Victorian border.

The detentions come against a backdrop of continuing labour shortages in fruit picking districts. Lack of workers in rural areas has been a major issue since the 1980s. The introduction of tax file numbers killed off the large band of itinerant workers who had for many decades worked the farms on a traditional route from Victoria to Queensland.

The 21 Malaysian workers, including nine women, were taken into custody after police doing routine heavy vehicle checks stopped a bus near the tiny township of Euston on Monday afternoon. Six of the Malaysian nationals escaped into the bush and spent the night in cold conditions. They were recovered in good health at various times and in various locations along the highway yesterday morning.

The workers were kept in the Mildura police station on the Victorian side of the border due to a lack of facilities on the NSW side. Officials from the Department of Immigration's Canberra office interviewed the workers in Mildura yesterday. Unless granted bridging visas, they are expected to be transferred to detention centres in the next day or two.

Australian Workers Union leader Bill Shorten said the employment of illegal workers by Australian farmers was rife and was doing local labourers out of jobs. ``There are some growers who wish Mexico was on our vborder and they could employ illegal Mexican workers and pay low wages,'' he said. ``Illegal workers are doing Australian workers out of a job. The practice kills the local labour market because farmers won't offer decent wages to local workers.''

Workplace Relations Manager for the National Farmers Federation Denita Wawn said farmers were increasingly relying on backpackers and grey nomads to pick fruit. They are currently agitating the Federal government for a guest worker scheme for Pacific Islanders to help overcome the shortage of workers.

Ian Rintoul from the NSW Refugee Action Coalition said the detentions were hypocritical given that the government was ``granting lots of visas to people of all kinds'' under guest working visas.

Late last year Immigration Minister Senator Vanstone announced that people on holiday visas could extend their stay by up to 12 months if they went fruit picking.