|
|||||||||||||
|
Austrac, the agency Justice Minister Chris Ellison calls the cornerstone of the fight against money-laundering, has granted the contracts to Freelance Consulting Services and CXC Consulting, companies alleged to have sponsored large numbers of information technology workers from India on the pretext there was IT work for them in Australia. Instead, many Indians who entered the country as software programmers and systems analysts found the jobs they had been promised lasted only a few months - if that. Some were asked for more money to stay on the books of the companies that had sponsored them, and ended up working illegally as convenience store attendants, kitchen hands and cleaners. Earlier this year, when The Australian first reported their plight, Melbourne migration agent Harold Jones said: "There were a few hundred of these guys running around - looking for work in IT to keep their visas going." In a statement for the Migration Review Tribunal, one man, Nisar Ahmed Younis Ahmed Shaikh, said he knew "the work was not likely to be available and that Freelance were making job offers to enable people to have temporary residence in Australia". Freelance chief executive Michael Kelson denied allegations his company had sponsored more than 1000 IT workers on temporary business visas (known as 457 visas) over a two-year period, saying there had been 120 at most. Mr Kelson also denied his company had ever asked the IT workers to pay tax or other amounts to maintain their visa sponsorships. "I am well aware that was going on in the industry, but not in my firm," he said. Companies obtain 457 visas on the understanding the applicants will work in a specified occupation for the company named on the forms. While many of the IT workers were eventually deported, the companies that sponsored them were not sanctioned. The Immigration Department has no power to prosecute companies that flout immigration regulations. Despite the concerns about the companies' practices, Freelance has been awarded three IT placement contracts worth $766,480 and CXC has got a contract worth $197,120. "We have contracted these organisations to provide us with specific people, which they have," Austrac director Neil Jensen said. "We undertake quite extensive security and background checks on all of these people.We have no reason to have concerns about them or the work they are doing." An industry source said recruitment companies generally pocketed between 30 per cent and 50 per cent of the contract - after paying payroll tax, superannuation and workers' compensation.
|
|||||||||||||
| Migration Headlines | ||
|
