Jessa Joy Royupa has fought for reform since her brother Jerwin died after being exploited in the Riverina. Photo: Supplied.
The federal Department of Home Affairs (DHA) is considering vetting employers before they’re allowed to sponsor overseas training visa holders, a Senate Estimates (parliamentary) hearing was told on Tuesday (10 February).
Greens Senator David Shoebridge grilled DHA bureaucrats about the death of 21-year-old Filipino Jerwin Royupa, who voluntarily jumped or fell from a moving van in 2019. A recent coronial inquest found he had been exploited by his sponsor, a Riverina winery that cannot be named for legal reasons.
Mr Royupa came to Australia as a “gentle” young man hoping to support his family and gain experience in agriculture through a 407 training visa. But the inquest found he was forced to perform unpaid manual labour for 10 hours a day, six days a week with no training or education whatsoever. During his entire placement, DHA never visited the site.
Mr Shoebridge asked the DHA immigration head Clare Sharp if her department did any vetting at all on Mr Royupa’s employer before the placement. She did not answer this question, but said reforms were in the pipeline.
“We are working through some changes to the regulations to ensure that the vetting of the sponsor happens before [the placement] and some other programmatic changes to deal with the way the visa was used in that case and in others,” Ms Sharp said.
Region previously reported that no DHA official had contacted Jerwin’s family since his death seven years ago. Since that article was published, DHA secretary Stephanie Foster had a Microsoft Teams meeting with Jerwin’s sister Jessa Royupa, a Filipino-based lawyer who came to Australia to advocate for change after her brother’s death.
“I am glad the secretary finally met with me but I want her department to make an unwavering commitment to increase protections for vulnerable migrant workers and to assist with any police investigations,” Ms Royupa told Region.
She said the DHA training visa operated like a “visa for slaves” that created the perfect conditions for exploitation. While Ms Foster said they’d made “improvements” to the scheme since Jerwin’s death, Ms Royupa said she felt DHA had not made any meaningful changes.
Jerwin Royupa was just 21 when he died. Photo: Supplied.
Ms Foster acknowledged the system failed her brother and pledged reform.
“It is tragic that Mr Royupa found himself in a situation of exploitation and had no access to support in that time. We’ll look very closely at the occupations where there are red flags … where there are remote locations,” Ms Foster told the parliamentary hearing.
She said DHA wouldn’t commit to any changes until it performed a review, but the department would look “at all the options”.
The coroner found that DHA “does not take active steps to supervise compliance or prevent employers taking advantage of overseas trainees, thereby exposing vulnerable overseas workers to an unacceptable risk of exploitation”.
Senator Shoebridge noted that a new worker justice visa – which allows exploited overseas workers to stay in Australia and work for someone else – could address this issue. The pilot visa regulations include a list of unions and legal centres that can support these workers.
But the Senator said the program could leave rural-based visa holders in the lurch.
“When it comes to Jerwin’s case, the nearest community legal centre [to the Riverina] I think is in Redfern,” he said.
“Unless there’s ubiquitous access to help and it’s where people are, and so many of these migrant workers are in places like the Riverina … unless it’s rapidly expanded, more lives will be lost.”
He suggested organisations like Wodonga-based Hume Riverina Community Legal Service could be added to the list of accredited support agencies.
Senator Shoebridge asked the bureaucrats when training visa reforms would be undertaken.
“As we are talking, there might be more of these young men or young women right now without the help they need – what’s the timeframe?”
Ms Foster said she expected changes to happen by the start of the next financial year.
The coroner also criticised DHA for not having a phone number on its website landing page — a failure that still has not been addressed.
