British backpackers in Australia being paid half minimum wage in work that constitutes 'criminal forced labour'

Hundreds of young adults from the UK and Ireland are being subjected to widespread exploitation in Australia, a study has found.

A third of seasonal migrant workers were paid around half the minimum wage, according to the survey.

The exploitation of foreign labourers was described as “endemic and severe” in the report by the University of New South Wales and the University of Technology Sydney.

Co-author Laurie Berg said international students and backpackers encounter conditions that “may constitute criminal forced labour”.

The report questioned 4,322 temporary migrants from 107 countries across all states and territories in Australia.

A total of 91 respondents had their passports confiscated by employers, 173 were required to pay A$1,000 (£570) upfront to secure a job and 112 were asked to pay money back to their employer in cash after receiving their wages.

The study also found 44 per cent of overseas workers were paid in cash, including two in three waiters, kitchen hands and food servers. Half never or rarely receive a payslip.

It comes after the mother of Mia Ayliffe-Chung, a British woman killed last August while working in Australia, called for more rights for migrant workers.

Rosie Ayliffe told the BBC that farmers in the country are “making huge amounts of money out of our backpackers” and Britons are “propping up their agricultural industry, in effect”.

Ms Ayliffe-Chung, 20, from Wirksworth in Derbyshire, was working on a farm when she was stabbed to death at a hostel in Queensland.

In the first year of their trips, many backpackers choose to do 88 days of rural work, usually agricultural, to get a visa to stay in the country for a second year.

Additional reporting by Press Association