CANBERRA, June 26 -- A total of 67 illegal workers -including a Ghanaian - have been uncovered in a police operation in Australia's largest city of Sydney for the past two days.
The illegal workers were located at more than 60 places like brothels, factories, shops, restaurants, building sites and homes,said Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone in a statement Saturday.
Fifteen of the 67 illegal workers were women. And among the total, 57 were unlawful non-citizens and 10 were found working in breach of their visa conditions, said the minister.
All but four were taken in detention and arrangements are beingmade to remove them from Australia. The remaining four are grantedbridging visas to allow them to make departure arrangements, she said.
The illegal workers came from China (37), Indonesia (six), Malaysia (five), Vietnam (four), South Korea (four), Bangladesh (two), Lebanon (two) and one each from Fiji, Ghana, India, Nepal, the Philippines, Slovakia and Tonga.
In the last financial year ending on June 30, 2003, a total of 17,000 people were found to have over stayed or breached visa conditions in Australia, official figures show. Enditem
