Edited sentence: By 2018, around 17,320 Islanders mostly from Vanuatu, Fiji and Tonga had been employed with the majority being placed on farms in Queensland.Even if paid properly, the labourers could earn only an extremely low average take-home wage of $9,000 in six months.Evidence of the workers being paid as little as $10 a week has also been published with employers threatening the workers against making any complaints.Extreme neglect including poor access to clean water, adequate food and medical assistance resulted in the deaths of several labourers.In 2012 the Australian government introduced a seasonal worker scheme under the 416 visa to bring in Pacific Islander labour to work in the agricultural industry performing tasks such as picking fruit.Investigations into this seasonal worker scheme have so far been minimal with the government expanding the programme in 2017 and again in 2019.Some commentators have also drawn parallels between blackbirding and the early 21st century recruitment of labour under the 457 visa scheme.Strong parallels have been made with the working conditions observed under this programme to those forced upon the blackbirded Pacific Islander labourers in the 19th Century.Workers under this programme have been offered misleading contracts and subjected to work long hours and forced to live in squalid conditions