Both agents said they would charge about 22,000 yuan to 25,000 yuan as a commission.

One added that an employer would reimburse the fee once an employee arrived in the city.

“Everyone wants to go to Hong Kong, but not just anyone can easily go,” one agent said when the reporter pretended to be hesitant over the high fee.

“If you don’t want this opportunity, there are still plenty of people queuing up to get it.”

Both insisted they could ensure the employee could work legally as a dishwasher in Hong Kong.

“If the employers are happy with you, they’ll help you get a work visa,” one agent said. “Otherwise, it’ll be illegal in Hong Kong.”

The two declined to reveal their real names or the names of the companies they worked for.

Job adverts for dishwashers in the city have increased on Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu recently.

They have vague job descriptions and little information about the restaurants the employers would be working for. Some of the advertisers said they were recruitment agents who introduced mainland manual workers to overseas job opportunities.

Several mainland users have left messages on the adverts asking for further information, but the accounts said they could only offer details through private messaging.

Hong Kong’s Labour Department expanded its worker import scheme this summer, covering unskilled or low-skilled staff and 26 job categories in industries such as travel, hospitality and wholesale trade under eased measures endorsed by the city’s top decision-making body in June in a bid to tackle staff shortages.

But the department said there was a strict visa application process for prospective mainland employees that involved approvals from labour authorities in Hong Kong and on the mainland.

Officials added employers who wanted to import workers should apply to the department. If approval is given, they are required to recruit staff from outside the city through foreign labour service cooperation enterprises approved by mainland authorities.

The two agents contacted by the Post reporter said dishwashers in Hong Kong could earn between HK$16,000 (US$2,045) and HK$20,000 a month from a 48-hour working week. They added employees would also get food, accommodation, medical insurance and 15 days of annual leave.

Lawmaker Doreen Kong Yuk-foon said that although the agents were not necessarily illegal, they could not guarantee a successful visa application.

“The agents often exaggerate the hope of success, but actually, hiring an agent won’t increase the chance of success. It’s only based on the applicants’ own merits,” she explained.

“I would strongly suggest applicants carefully read the visa application requirements laid out by the Immigration Department themselves. They should be quite straightforward. The applicants can actually do the application themselves.”

Kong added that if jobseekers wanted to hire an agent to help them, they should select them with care, based on their reputation.

The Immigration Department earlier this month smashed a crime syndicate that offered the services of cleaners without work visas to a client network of about 50 restaurants.

The department said 927 illegal workers – excluding sex workers – were arrested in the first nine months of the year, higher than the 886 taken into custody for the whole of 2022.

Among the illegal workers arrested from January to September, 368 (40 per cent) of them were from the mainland. The total for the whole of last year was 222, and 350 for 2021.

The department last month arrested six workers and three employers on suspicion of illegal labour practices after they raided 17 locations, including restaurants, residential buildings and a shop in a four-day operation.

“The Immigration Department has been committed to combating unlawful employment with a view to protecting the local labour market and safeguarding job opportunities for the local workforce,” a spokesman said.

The department said it had carried out an average of 1,500 anti-illegal worker operations a month so far this year, more than 10 per up on the previous two years.