Backpackers being deported for faking employment details say lack of farm work forced their hand
Backpackers who are being deported from Australia for submitting fake work details in visa applications arranged by a third party over email say they resorted to the scheme because there was not enough farm work for them to comply with their visa conditions.
Backpackers on a working holiday visa must show they have worked for 88 days in specified occupations in regional or remote Australia, if they want to extend their stay beyond 12 months.
The operator providing the visa application service, known as “Golden Fish” because of their email handle, appears to have been targeting backpackers from the UK, offering to provide false work information as part of visa applications for working holiday makers at a cost of $1,000 each.
In one email exchange seen by Guardian Australia, Golden Fish said they had been operating since 2009.
Golden Fish’s email address has been shared around by word of mouth for years, according to one backpacker who used the service.Once backpackers contact it, they are asked to fill out a 29-point questionnaire and to transfer $1,000 once the visa has been approved.
Another email outlined what happens next. “When we lodge your application, immigration contact farm owner and check your details,” the email said.
“After that, most of [the] cases would be approved but sometimes immigration request further information. We will respond upon their request so there is nothing to worry about from your end.
“If anything happens we will act on [your] behalf,” Golden Fish said.
It is unclear how many people used Golden Fish’s services, but Guardian Australia is aware of almost 20 set to be deported for using fake documentation.
One Irish backpacker who used Golden Fish and is currently appealing his deportation said it was common practice.
“This is huge, it’s everyone I know,” he said.
When Australia’s international border was shut due to Covid-19, the agricultural industry complained about a shortage or workers – but some working holiday visa holders who remained in the country say they struggled to find enough work. Some said farmers were hesitant to take on travellers and held on to the workers they already knew.
Cameron, who did not wish to use his real name, said the Golden Fish email was passed around in the backpacker community.
“No one knows who Golden Fish is, but you contact this email asking to get help to get the 88 days over the line,” Cameron said, referring to the amount of time visa-holders are required to work in regional areas.
“They upload documents and you pay them $1,000 for the service and the visa gets approved. Mine came through straight away.”
Cameron travelled to Ayr, an hour south of Townsville, when the pandemic hit to complete his 88 days. But over more than four and a half months he was only able to secure 50 days of work on different farms.
“I had to wait six weeks to just get my first day of employment – the season was only just starting and there were more people than jobs,” he said.
Nine months later he received an email from the immigration department saying it had caught him using false documents and he would have to leave the country.
Cameron is currently on a threemonth bridging visa. His partner is Australian and in a last-ditch attempt to keep him in the country the pair will apply for a partnership visa.
“I had every intention to do my farm work,” he said.
Brisbane lawyer Ellison McMullen has worked with eight clients who used the fake visa application scheme. She said all of them tried to get farm work, but there just wasn’t enough work to fulfil their visa requirements.
Facing almost instant deportation, she said the desperate backpackers used Golden Fish’s services to forge their working documents.
“Every one of them made attempts but they were doing it at a time where state borders were closed,” McMullen said.
“Fruit picking is seasonal and they move around the states, but they weren’t able to do that.”
On top of the eight cases McMullen has worked on over the last two years, Guardian Australia is aware of nine others all in the process of being deported.
Some are appealing the deportation, but others can’t afford a lawyer. Many of them have been given a threeyear ban on returning to Australia. None of the appeals have been successful to date.
McMullen said there had been a recent increase in deportations.
“The regulations we had before, there was a discretion there. The government and case officer could decide on a point by point basis whether or not it was appropriate to forgive it.
“That seems to have gone by the board.
“They’re getting more and more rigid, there is less and less room for any kind of discretion.”
She said there had also been an increase in people using fraudulent work experience documents who had not been able to fulfil their visa requirements.
The horticulture sector has been reliant on overseas workers, with the main source of the labour force being backpackers.
Under the new trade deal between Australia and the UK, British backpackers will be exempt from the requirement to work on farms – a scheme which has been riddled with claims of exploitation and sexual harassment.
McMullen said the program ending was more reason to show lenience and let those at risk of deportation stay in the country.
“It’s not in Australia’s interests to deport them. Of the eight people I’ve worked with, one was a teacher and seven were skilled nurses. These are in desperate need at the moment,” she said.
The Department of Home Affairs was contacted by Guardian Australia but did not reply to questions asking if they were aware of Golden Fish, how long they had been operating, and how many people had used their services to obtain visas fraudulently. It said it would not comment on individual cases, but stated they had “no tolerance for visa fraud, illegal work, worker exploitation and worker underpayment of any kind”.
Jay, who did not wish to use his real name, has just been given three months to leave the country. A teacher by trade, he and his girlfriend, who is a nurse, had hoped to permanently move to Sydney.
“I’m more than disappointed. I’ve spent quite a lot of money, the best part of $5,000 on legal fees,” Jay, whose appeal was not granted, said.
The pair, who were in Mildura, spent 10 weeks at the start of the pandemic phoning farms in the area but could only get a handful of days of work.
Text messages between them and the hostel operator, who often acts as a conduit between farms and backpackers, show they had repeatedly asked for work without success.
“There was definitely less work than what there had been,” Jay said.
Running out of savings, they returned to Sydney so his girlfriend could take up nursing work which would count towards her 88 days. That’s when Jay emailed Golden Fish.
“We’re just backpackers who tried to get work,” his girlfriend said. “So we did what we felt we needed to do at the time … so we can stay.”
Golden Fish did not respond to questions from Guardian Australia.