Police believe a 47 year old Malaysian man whose visa had expired had been working on a farm near Mildura before he died.
Ewe Leong Lim arrived in Australia last year.
He was seeking work and opportunity but instead police are investigating how his body came to be left inside a public toilet by the side of a highway in a remote Victorian town.
Police believe the man had been earning money picking fruit when he died of natural causes.
The case has raised questions over why he didn't seek help for a treatable medical condition, and why his body was apparently dumped by people who knew him.
Head of the Sunraysia Mallee Ethnic Communities Council Dean Wickham says the death highlights a worrying trend among workers within the fruit-picking industry.
"You know, it's inevitable this was going to happen. If there are people working here illegally, and they're afraid to come forward, and the person who passed away was found to have a treatable disease. We need some protections in place for the most vulnerable people and those seem to be those coming here to work within the industry that underpins this whole local economy."
Dean Wickham says he hears many stories about workers treated poorly by unregistered labour contracting companies -- including cases of sexual assault.
"Two weeks ago? Yeah. Two or three weeks ago, (I heard of) a couple of Japanese girls living in a local hostel being inappropriately touched and approached by one of the people within the local contracting industry, walking in on them while they were getting changed, and that type of thing."
Across town at Sunset Backpackers, one of the city's many backpacker hostels, manager Chelsey Morello says she, too, often hears complaints about workers paying for accomodation but not being delivered promised work.
"Every day, without fail. Every day. It's unbelievable some of the stories you here, there's people that lose thousands of dollars to contractors, hostel operators that aren't actually hostels, they're just share houses. A lot of people will get backpackers to sign contracts and hand over a lot of money before they've seen where they're staying. And they're lost, they have nothing left. They get no visa deals from it, and they end up in a really bad situation."
Dean Wickham would like to see labour contracting companies -- who act as middle men between labourers and farmers -- more heavily regulated.
But asparagus farmer Wayne Stephens believes that would increase pressure on farming businesses without delivering better outcomes for workers.
"They seem to be able to get around the regulations. I don't know how. The regulations, all they seem to do is catch up with the honest people, the ones that are trying to do the right thing, it just seems to make more work for them."
The Mildura region has long been a hub for seasonal workers.
Some are Australian, many are backpackers, and others come because they can find work easily without needing fluent English.
Jan Guzari, from Afghanistan, says he found legal work picking peaches and apricots on a farm near the South Australian border two years ago. He says migrants should protect themselves by only working legally.
"If the people are working illegal, no good for government, no good for Centrelink, no good for people, because the money is less, the money is less. Illegal, the money is less."
In the meantime police hope someone may recognise 47 year old Malaysian national Ewe Leong Lim -- and help them solve the mystery surrounding his death.
