According to an investigation by the ABC it has been found that houses in Australia have been home to cannabis by acting as grow houses. The reports suggest that Vietnamese crime syndicates are at the centre of the multi-billion-dollar enterprise. They act as a three-tier model with the head at the top, then the facilitator and finally the crop sitters.
According to suspicion hundreds of Vietnamese men and women have been travelling to Australia on student and tourist visas over the past decade. When caught they insist on having been forced or lured into the job after arriving in Australia when the truth is most of them come to Australia with the sole purpose of crop sitting.
The issue lies with the fact that the Australian government relies on international students which cashes into a revenue of about $2 billion annually just from visa application fees which leaves little room for change.
This allows room for fraudulent brokers in Vietnam to produce fraudulent applications and even identities to secure visas.
According to the Department of Home Affairs there are approximately 2,340 Vietnamese unlawful non-citizens — the term given to those who have overstayed visas — currently in Australia.
