According to an investigative report published by the Sydney Morning Herald, Mohammad Rowi, was part of a sizeable workforce of undocumented and underpaid workers on the farms.

Some are said to be paid as little as a few dollars an hour to work on Australian farms, and housed in dilapidated homes, sheds and caravans controlled by criminal syndicates who run the labour-hire firms that employ them.

This is a far cry from what they were promised.

Mohammad had travelled to Australia after spotting an advertisement for a well-paid job posted on the wall of a local store in Jeli, Kelantan. Dozens of similar advertisements abound on online forums, promising good pay.

Mohammad was lured by the promise of AUD750 (AUD1 = RM3.27) weekly pay for picking fruits. In return for a payment of AUD1,500, he was “guaranteed” lucrative work on a farm.

The expose stated that in reality, Mohammad earned between AUD50 to AUD110 a day, with deductions for rent and transport, on the farms in Swan Hill, Victoria, where he met dozens of other illegal Malaysian workers.

Some of them were working for no net income after paying for rent and transport and putting money towards the debts incurred while getting their jobs. Some are unable to leave because their employer is withholding their pay.

An undercover Malaysian journalist, posing as an illegal worker, reported that due to his “inexperience”, he was paid only AUD110 for 24 hours of work over four days. He was left with AUD30 after AUD70 for a week’s rent and AUD10 “short change” were deducted by the contractor’s associate.

Senior law enforcement officials are privately calling for new, tough criminal sanctions to apply to middlemen to create a deterrence.

“Some farmers want labour that they can exploit the hell out of. Migrants are not seen as people, but as commodities,” said National Union of Workers federal secretary Tim Kennedy, who also accused the major supermarkets of turning a blind eye to the problem.