Sydney: A prominent Indian community member in Melbourne has helped expose a large scandal that involvies Indians paying huge sum to obtain fake skilled and student visas to permanently settle in Australia.
In an interview to Australian Broadcasting Corporation or ABC, Jasvinder Sindhu said that in some of the fake visa-holders had gone on to be exploited, and in some cases raped, by their bosses."
"These people are paying up to $50,000 and you need to see the way they live. Ten people in one house and don’t eat properly and maybe work 18 hours a day. We have seen girls being raped by their employers. And we have seen people having injuries at work. Their thumb was cut or they had other major injuries and they did not complain,” he told the ABC.
When asked by the ABC if people were paying “for a phantom job” and in return they get a “skilled visa”, he said: “Yes. So you’re paying to create a job that doesn’t exist and to create a service which was never delivered. And you’re getting permanent residency which is not fake. This is real.”
Sidhu said that he was himself approached by a "visa fixer" to take part in the scam.
This same fixer was caught on a hidden camera telling an undercover operative he knew employers in Sydney and Melbourne willing to create fake jobs for foreigners.
Last year this same man messaged me on Facebook offering a stake in the visa scam scheme, Sindhu said.
The fixer said he could help organise the false paperwork in exchange for $50,000.
Mr Sidhu, according to the report, was told he would be paid $5,000 for every "applicant" he was able to deliver from India. The fixer said he could organize student and IT visas.
His revelations are part of a large investigation that includes examining corruption among government officials.
According to ABC730 and Fairfax Media, their investigation found Immigration Department chief Michael Pezzullo has referred 132 cases of suspected corruption inside the department to the national corruption watchdog, the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity.
Indians in Australia have been asked to remain cautious of fraudulent calls from unauthorised sources about their Australian visa and immigration status, the Indian High Commission has said.
"These are the people who impersonate themselves as an officials of High Commission or consulate. They have some information about you and they will tell that there was a problem in visa status or in the passport and then ask money," Indian High Commissioner Navdeep Suri has said.
Recently, the High Commission had put out a notice that said 'some Indian nationals, who have recently arrived in or migrated to Australia, have been receiving fraudulent calls from unauthorised persons about their Australian visa/immigration status.
"At times the callers have even spoofed the phone numbers allotted to the High Commission of India, Canberra or its Consulate in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth.
"These calls are not made by authorised officials from these officials. It may be noteworthy that the Indian High Commission or its consulates usually do not deal with the Immigrant Indians regarding their Australian visa/immigration status," it said.
