A Malaysian family living in “squalid” conditions have been detained following raids on an illegal worker exploitation racket at a market garden near Kwinana.
Seven people, including a 13-year-old boy, four men and two women were found by Australian Border Force officers when they raided a rental property in the suburb of Anketell on Wednesday.
ABF superintendent Clint Simms said conditions inside the rental house were “squalid to say the least”.
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READ NOWThe raid was part of Operation Battenrun, which began investigating the exploitation of workers in WA late last year.
“Those workers are extremely vulnerable and are often underpaid and poorly treated,” Supt Simms said.
Officers were targeting a 28-year-old man who has been living in Australia since July 2017, ABF said in a statement on Thursday.
He is suspected of acting as an unregistered migration agent and engaged in illegal worker exploitation.
His 54-year-old father and two brothers, aged 24 and 32, were also detained with the younger men also suspected of working illegally.
The four men have been sent to Yongah Hill Immigration Detention Centre while a 24-year-old woman is in Perth Detention Centre.
The targets’ mother and teenage brother are being detained in alternate accommodation.
The whole family will be deported back to Malaysia.