Australian government considering amnesty for foreign students exploited by 7-Eleven

The Australian government is " actively considering" introducing an amnesty for 7-Eleven workers on student visas who have been victims of the convenience store chain's half-pay scam.

It comes as a 7-Eleven-funded investigation into widespread exploitation of thousands of workers across the convenience store giant's franchise Australian network begins this week.

The scam, exposed by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Fairfax Media, found foreign students were being paid half or less than they were entitled to, and work twice the number of hours than their student visas allowed.

In Australia, foreign students are only allowed to work 20 hours per week, but many were forced to work double this amount.

In a brief statement to Fairfax Media on Monday a spokeswoman for the Department of Immigration and Border Protection said: "The department has this matter under active consideration".

The latest move follows a call by the Australian Labor Party for an amnesty last week. Endi