Yuko Narushima IMMIGRATION CORRESPONDENT
October 20, 2010
A FAMILY recruiting Filipino boxers to fight in Australia is under investigation for allegedly keeping the men in slave-like conditions in a Sydney garage.
The immigration department yesterday confirmed it was investigating complaints against a stable of boxers in the western suburbs. The NSW government's Combat Sports Authority is also aware of the complaints.
The four men bringing the complaint are originally from Cebu in the Philippines. They allege they were stripped of their passports on arrival and were forced into domestic servitude, washing dishes, cleaning toilets and child-minding.
Advertisement: Story continues below They say they lived in the family's garage, eating the same rice meals day after day without a heater through winter, and were not paid proper entitlements from title bouts. They allege they were threatened with deportation and, in one case, death if they complained or defected to another manager.
''They live in a very standard place, only in a garage, no heater, dangerously dangling treadmill overhead,'' the complaint says. ''They wash their clothes by bare hands, doing housework … as if they are houseboys.''
One complainant, a super bantamweight, told the Herald he was brought to Australia to box two years ago.
The 23-year-old said his manager had lied to him. ''I know about my real prizes,'' he said. Of the $3000 he won in a title fight recently, he received $400.
The Liberal senator Eric Abetz, raising the allegations at a Senate committee in Canberra yesterday, sought more information on the special sports visas on which the men came to Australia. The 400-series visas entitle athletes to compete and train for up to two years. They can bring family members, who can work and study.
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