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In an interview with SBS News, a woman expressed frustration over a broken promise at her workplace. “We complained about what we agreed to sign because they promised eight hours, but we only worked three hours a day,” she said, highlighting a significant discrepancy between expectations and reality.
Her son finds himself in a similar predicament, caught in a state of uncertainty and waiting for a resolution.
Ken Dachi, associated with the not-for-profit multicultural support organization Welcoming Australia, has brought attention to a pressing issue in the regional NSW town of Leeton. He reports that there are at least 11 children, aged from just three months to under four years, who are affected by this situation, lacking the proper documentation and living in a state of limbo.
Dachi is advocating for government intervention to provide visa status to these undocumented children. His call to action emphasizes the need for a compassionate approach to ensure these young lives are not left in uncertainty. The urgency of the situation is captured by SBS News, which draws attention to the broader challenge faced by many in similar circumstances.
Welcoming Australia’s Ken Dachi wants to see government intervention to grant visa status to undocumented children. Source: SBS News / Apple Photos Clean Up
“How can it sit comfortably with us that we have newborn children who either do not have birth certificates or no other identifier?” Dachi says.
Among them is a couple from Vanuatu, who wish to remain anonymous, who met while working in Australia and had a daughter together almost four years ago.
The child of this couple can’t access Medicare despite being born in Australia. Source: SBS News
They arrived in 2019 and were engaged under the former Seasonal Worker Programme (replaced by the PALM scheme in 2022), and say they left the program in 2020 due to poor living conditions and underpayment.
A one-night stay in hospital for their daughter recently cost them almost $3,000.
An uncertain future
However, he didn’t return home after his PALM visa expired because he had a son in Australia with another worker from Solomon Islands, so he decided to continue working under a bridging visa.
Despite having a positive experience working in the PALM scheme, this man says the future of his family is uncertain. Source: SBS News
He says he lives in uncertainty, not knowing whether his claim for protection will be granted.
“It’s a wicked problem for these women because for some of them, their babies are very much wanted and it’s against their personal and cultural beliefs to have a termination,” she says.
Dr Trudi Beck says the majority of pregnant PALM workers she treats are seeking a termination to avoid breaching their visa conditions. Source: SBS News
Under the PALM scheme, workers pay private health insurance, but pregnancy-related care is not included, so they’re forced to pay expensive out-of-pocket fees.
“It’s an invisible problem, so bringing it out of the shadows is really important to me but on top of that, working with the government to, I guess, hopefully educate women before they arrive on what the circumstances would be if they found themselves with a pregnancy while in Australia,” she says.
‘Anyone can exploit them’
“Mixed gender housing is a break of cultural frameworks, our women do not sleep in the same room as men in any consideration and workplace … they’re put in bunk beds of six to 10 to a room because it’s cost effective,” Davis explains.
Waskam Emelda Davis says a strong cultural framework must be implemented around the scheme to protect women from sexual exploitation. Source: SBS News
Juliana Nkrumah, acting head of gender equality and women’s safety at settlement service provider Settlement Services International, says women are at particular risk.
“When they are with the employer, some of them are vulnerable to sexual violence,” she says.
When they leave, they are more vulnerable because they don’t know where to go and anyone can exploit them.
In the last financial year, it’s estimated they paid more than $180 million in income tax.
Juliana Nkrumah says both women working under the PALM scheme and those who abscond are vulnerable to sexual violence. Source: SBS News
But the scheme has been plagued by reports of exploitation, such as underpayment, mistreatment and abuse.
Abul Rizvi, former deputy secretary of the Department of Immigration, says the death and injury rate associated with the scheme is outrageous.
Abul Rizvi has described the fatality rate associated with the PALM scheme as “appalling”. Source: SBS News
“It’s just appalling, I thought we would never get to this stage in Australia … If we had a similar level of death rate in the working holiday visa there would be outrage from the various countries involved and we would be under enormous pressure to fix things up but because the individuals are from poor countries, we seem to just ignore it,” he tells SBS News.
“Any workplace death is unacceptable and I would call for the relevant authority to throw the book at any employer found liable,” he said.
“Overwhelmingly, this scheme is working for the workers, it’s working for the Pacific and it’s working for Australia.”
Calls for urgent overhaul
“Ignoring the vulnerability of long-term disengaged people in our communities creates risks for both workers and employers, and undermines the integrity and social licence of the program,” he says.
The government must urgently strengthen its re-engagement strategy to include this cohort and provide greater industrial and legal support to all disengaged workers.
“Wherever possible, the Australian government seeks to support the re-engagement of disengaged PALM workers,” the spokesperson said, adding that a dedicated disengagement response team has been set up to deal with the issue.
