Employers hiring foreign workers will need to pay more attention to compliance obligations to avoid fines and/or losing their sponsorship rights. The Fair Work Ombudsman told the ABC that there has been ‘a spike’ in the underpayment of foreign workers in recent years.

Recovering $23 million last year from employers underpaying workers is only the tip of the iceberg, according to a report on the ABC. Thousands of workers, including Australians, are being underpaid wages or denied entitlements by their Australian employers, the ABC claims, with a rising number of complaints coming from overseas workers being denied their entitlements.

Cafes, restaurants and pubs, followed closely by construction, the retail trade and service industries including contract cleaning are listed among the main jobs where underpayment is rife. But it was the spike in complaints from overseas workers - including 457 visa holders - that prompted Fair Work Ombudsman Ms Natalie James to launch an investigation.

"One in 10 of our complaints are now coming from visa holders. That's significant and that is a trend that's on the up," she told the ABC.

In 2012, her office recouped $67,000 in underpaid entitlements for 77 visa holders. That skyrocketed the next year to $262,000. Last year $345,000 was recouped for 309 foreign workers. About 50 cases a year end up in court with the rest being resolved by the office of the Fair Work Ombudsman.

Migration Alliance has been provided with the following witness statement by Hanhong Chen (aka Ashley) and given permission to release the information and police statement in an effort to encourage others to seek justice:

Full statement to Surry Hills Police: 20150220095356313.pdf

"I came to know the Abel Prasad man since early March 2014, and this man came to the 375 Crown St Newsagency to approach me and claim that  he can do various visas with 100% successful rate such as subclass 572/573/574/457/186/187/188 visas at low cost, and he claimed to own a law firm named SYD VENTURE CAPITAL PTY LTD. Later I visited his office and came into knowledge of his associate staffs such as XXXXXXX and YYYYYY [real names removed for privacy reasons].

Migration Alliance covered the story of Eddy Kang despite letters and threats from Eddy Kang's numerous lawyers.   With over 85,000 hits on our original news story regarding Eddy Kang it was obvious something was wrong.  Our original story was called 'Clients receive death threats, no job, no visa and no refund' on 16 October 2013.  Here's the story in 'The Australian' today:

AUTHORITIES have swooped on a man who ­allegedly targeted international students with false promises of a subclass-457 work visa in ­exchange for up to $45,000.

South Korean-born Eddie Kang, 51, a director of 20 registered companies, allegedly ­lodged visa applications under var­i­ous business names knowing they were likely to be rejected.

Concerns have emerged about a ‘security statement’ Australian PM Tony Abbot is expected to release next week, according to a report on the SBS. Queensland MP Teresa Gambaro has indicated that changes are brewing that could have significant impact on the Coalition government’s support for the immigration program and multiculturalism.

The former Assistant Minister for Immigration in the Howard government, MS Gambaro said in a statement to SBS that "while it seems clear that there have been very concerning failures of process and a lack of proper diligence with security checks, we should not let these failures of process lead us to question the strengths and benefits of our migration program or our success as a multicultural society.”

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has raised the Lindt Café as an example of where lax enforcement of bail rules allowed Man Haron Monis free on bail while facing serious charges.  

Mr Abbott has detailed the areas he wanted to examine in the context of the security statement.  

"It's clear to me, that for too long, we have given those who might be a threat to our country the benefit of the doubt,” he said in a recent statement. “There’s been the benefit of the doubt at our borders, the benefit of the doubt for residency, the benefit of the doubt for citizenship and the benefit of the doubt at Centrelink...And in the courts, there has been bail, when clearly there should have been jail.”

SBS survey of some some sectors of Australia's ethnic communities leadership indicates that they were concerned that the approach could undermine support for multiculturalism in Australia while Civil Liberties groups have raised their concerns about the Government’s plan to end the so called ‘benefit of the doubt’.

 I have spoken with the National Allegations Assessment Team (NAAT) today and they have requested that if anyone has information relating to Abel Kalpinand Prasad, in the first instance please send the information using the dedicated web-form.  The Department are working on it.   If people are willing to contact the Department directly then the following information has been sent by the DIBP to Migration Alliance:

"The online form is available - https://www.immi.gov.au/contacts/forms/ssl/dob-in/index.htm

General information and links to the online form - http://www.immi.gov.au/Help/Pages/immigration-dob-in-service.aspx