Australian Border Force (ABF) officers have detained eight individuals as part of a national operation targeting unscrupulous labour hire intermediaries and foreign worker exploitation.
Five Malaysian nationals were located and detained for either being in Australia illegally or working in breach of their visa conditions.
Two of those detained are suspected of higher level involvement in worker exploitation. All five are being held in immigration detention ahead of their removal from Australia.
ABF’s Commander of Field Operations James Copeman said the activity was part of Operation Battenrun, an ongoing ABF operation targeting those facilitating illegal foreign work and organised migration fraud.