Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery Poverty drives the unsuspecting poor into the
hands of traffickers Published reports & articles from 2000 to 2025 gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Australia.htm
Australia is a
destination country for women from Southeast Asia, South Korea, Taiwan, the
People’s Republic of China (PRC), and reportedly Eastern Europe trafficked
for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation. Some men and women from
several Pacific islands, India, the PRC, South Korea, the Philippines, and
Ireland are fraudulently recruited to work temporarily in Australia, but
subsequently are subjected to conditions of forced labor, including
confiscation of travel documents, confinement, and threats of serious harm.
Some indigenous teenage girls are subjected to forced prostitution at rural
truck stops. - U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2009 Check out a later country report here or a full TIP Report here |
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CAUTION: The following
links have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in HOW TO USE THIS WEB-PAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on
this page and others to see which aspects of Human Trafficking are of
particular interest to you. Would you
like to write about Forced-Labor? Debt
Bondage? Prostitution? Forced Begging? Child Soldiers? Sale of Organs? etc. On the other
hand, you might choose to include possible precursors of trafficking such as poverty.
There is a lot to the subject of Trafficking.
Scan other countries as well.
Draw comparisons between activity in adjacent countries and/or
regions. Meanwhile, check out some of
the Term-Paper resources that are available
on-line Teachers Check out some of
the Resources for Teachers attached to this
website. ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Paying for
Servitude: Trafficking in Women for Prostitution in Kathleen Maltzahn, 2004 International Women’s Day Pamela Denoon Lecture, March 4, 2004 cpcabrisbane.org/Kasama/2004/V18n1/Servitude.htm [accessed 19 January
2011] Traffickers
routinely respond to women’s initial complaints, including their requests to
return home, with sexual, physical and psychological violence. Threats can
include something as subtle – I use the term advisedly – as threatening to
send a woman’s child a pornographic picture of her. As with women deceived
about doing prostitution, this violence aims to teach women that they have no
other option, cannot access help and cannot escape. One of the great skills
of traffickers is their ability to move beyond simple brute force. In this
way, women can be effectively imprisoned with well-applied and strategic
physical violence, that may appear minimal to outsiders, cemented by
devastating psychological violence. Traffickers engage with women’s
psychology. They learn what women value, and work to their strengths and
weaknesses. In this, I suspect we can learn something from them. I am sure if
government agencies spent more time trying to understand how trafficked women
see things, rather than seeing them as problems that don’t understand how we
work, we would have more success in challenging trafficking. ***
ARCHIVES *** Working in human
waste for less than $10 an hour, seven days: This is where your veggies come
from Cait Kelly, The New
Daily, 7 December 2020 thenewdaily.com.au/news/2020/12/07/farm-workers-exploitation/ [accessed 7 December
7, 2020] A human
trafficking-style network is feeding international workers to Australian
farms, where they’re being exploited, mistreated and threatened – all for
less than $10 an hour, explosive allegations reveal. The farm near Coffs
Harbour employs about 50 workers, who are forced to
start at 6am every day and pick until 6pm.
In summer, they work until 9pm.
There are no days off, not even breaks. “There’s no rest on Sunday or Saturday,
whatsoever,” he said. “The master of the
farm, he gets agents to go to mainland China to Hubei province and Fujian
province, poor places in China,” Mr D said. “Those workers have to pay the traffic
agents or the farmer a large sum of money to come to Australia to be
exploited like this. know at least three people who paid 250,000 yuan to come
to work in. Workers from
Pacific Islands paying hundreds to live in cramped quarters in regional
Australia Norman Hermant, social affairs reporter, ABC News, 10 June 2020 www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-11/pacific-island-scheme-wages-deducted-high-rent-inverell/12336278 [accessed 22 June
2020] For Mr Suitupe, coming to Australia
on the Pacific Labour Scheme (PLS) was a golden
opportunity to work hard and earn good money to send home to his family. But instead, nearly
a quarter of Mr Suitupe's
wage is being deducted to pay the rent on a four-bedroom house he shares with
eight other Samoans in the New South Wales town of Inverell. The living
arrangements were set up by the labour hire company
Meat Processors, which brought the group to Australia — and has the power to
send them home. For the nine men,
talking publicly about their situation is frightening — they fear the
prospect of losing the opportunity to work here. "It's nine of
us here, and we're all paying $150 a week, each." Altogether, the weekly rent is $1,350. Three arrested
following Sydney human trafficking investigation Australian Federal
Police AFP, 3 December 2019 [accessed 4 December
2019] Police will allege
the man and two women employed a 26-year-old Indonesian national as a maid in
their Sydney residences from July 2014. From August 2014 the victim became an
unlawful non-citizen and during that time, was not allowed possession of her
passport or allowed to return home. It is further
alleged that during this time the Indonesian woman was subject to significant
work hours without remuneration. “This is an example
of someone being brought to Australia without their informed consent and
forced to remain and work in conditions that most Australians would find
reprehensible,” she said. AFP hits schools in
bid to tackle forced child marriage Source: The
Herald-Sun, 27 May 2019 cathnews.com/cathnews/35066-afp-hits-schools-in-bid-to-tackle-forced-child-marriage [accessed 27 May
2019] The AFP has been
deploying officers to Melbourne and regional schools in recent months, where
they have intelligence to suggest there may be child brides and grooms. Forced marriage is
when children under the age of 16 are married off to older partners or
someone is bound in matrimony against their will, either legally or
informally. Despite the
prevalence of the practice, prosecution is extremely difficult. Victims are deeply
embedded in communities making it is difficult to get witnesses to testify. Forced marriage was
included in Australia’s criminal code in 2013, giving the AFP more power to
investigate suspected cases, but only one case is currently before the
courts. 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Australia U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 30 March 2021 www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/australia/
[accessed 10 May
2021] PROHIBITION OF
FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR The government
effectively enforced applicable labor laws. Most forced labor cases were
addressed through civil law, resulting in convicted labor traffickers
receiving only fines and other civil penalties that were not commensurate
with those for analogous serious crimes, such as kidnapping. Some foreign
nationals who came to the country for temporary work were subjected to forced
labor in sectors such as agriculture, cleaning, construction, hospitality,
and domestic service. PROHIBITION OF CHILD
LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT The Office of the Fair Work Ombudsman actively sought to educate young workers about their rights and responsibilities. Compulsory educational requirements effectively prevented most children from joining the workforce full-time until they were age 17. Although some violations of these laws occurred, there was no indication of a child labor problem in any specific sector. There were some reports of commercial sexual exploitation of children (see section 6, Children). Freedom House
Country Report 2020 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/australia/freedom-world/2020 [accessed 19 March
2020] G3. DO INDIVIDUALS
ENJOY PERSONAL SOCIAL FREEDOMS, INCLUDING CHOICE OF MARRIAGE PARTNER AND SIZE
OF FAMILY, PROTECTION FROM DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, AND CONTROL OVER APPEARANCE? Violence against
women remains a national concern, particularly for indigenous women. In
addition, women who kill domestic abusers in self-defense are often jailed,
with indigenous women representing the majority of this incarcerated group.
In September 2019, the attorney general pledged that the government would
legislate so that defendants claiming self-defense against their abusers can
more easily submit evidence to support their claims in court. G4. DO INDIVIDUALS
ENJOY EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM FROM ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION? Australians
generally enjoy robust economic opportunities and freedom from exploitation.
However, indigenous people continue to face economic hardship. Census data
from 2016 revealed that indigenous employment rates in remote areas declined
since 2006, impeding their upward social mobility. In 2018, Parliament
passed the Modern Slavery Act, requiring large businesses to be more
transparent about potential slavery in their supply chains and to make
efforts to address the problem. While the law, which took effect in early
2019, has been largely viewed favorably, some critics have noted that it
fails to impose penalties for noncompliance. Testimony of Deng US Department of
State, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, Trafficking in Persons Report, June
14, 2004 www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2004/34021.htm [accessed 30 August
201411] 2009-2017.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2004/33185.htm [accessed 23 April
2020] [scroll down to box] Deng, in her late
20's, was recruited in her native Thailand to travel voluntarily to Australia
where she was told she could make lots of money as a prostitute. Upon arrival
in Australia, however, she was met by traffickers who took away her passport
and locked her in a house. UQ study looks at
foreign sex worker exploitation and human trafficking www.uq.edu.au/news/?article=16004 [accessed 19 January
2011] Australia and Canada's
records in combating human trafficking were among the worst in the developed
world, according to a University of Queensland researcher. Dr Andreas Schloenhardt, a senior lecturer in UQ's TC Beirne School of Law said trafficking in persons remained
a phenomenon not well understood and poorly researched. "This is despite greater public
awareness and acknowledgement of the problem by government agencies," he
said. "Strategic policies,
concerted government action, along with prosecutions and convictions of
traffickers are only slowly forthcoming and the support available to victims
of trafficking is only marginally developed." One of the major
obstacles to government policy making, program development by
non-governmental organisations, and public awareness
about the exploitation of foreign workers and the trafficking in persons was
the lack of any reliable and comprehensive account of the nature and extent
of this problem, he said. Anecdotal
evidence and statistical estimates without a sufficient evidentiary basis
were the only sources of information currently available about Australia and
Canada's involvement in trafficking in persons. This was in contrast to other countries
where comprehensive accounts of human trafficking were published annually by
government agencies. All-out bid to
emancipate nation's sex slaves Matthew Benns and Heath Gilmore, Sidney Morning Herald, July 6,
2008 [accessed 19 January
2011] Authorities have
identified more than 100 women as sex slaves, imported into The number of sex
slaves in Sydney looking for help prompted the Salvation Army to open a
10-bed refuge for illegally trafficked sex workers. Salvos issue
slavery call-to-arms ABC News, Apr 15,
2008 www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/04/15/2217524.htm?section=australia [accessed 19 January
2011] Salvos say about
3,000 trafficked workers may be found on Australian farms or in mines,
factories, restaurants and private homes.
Spokesman Rick Hoffman says he knows of Indonesian or Burmese children
as young as 12 working in Brisbane. Govt taking poor
approach to human trafficking: report ABC News, Oct 2,
2007 www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/10/02/2048326.htm?section=justin [accessed 19 January
2011] A new report by an
international alliance of non-government organisations
suggests Falling Short of
the Mark: An International Study on the Treatment of Human Trafficking
Victims
[PDF] The Future Group,
March 2006 www.oas.org/atip/canada/Fallingshortofthemark.pdf [accessed 19 January
2011] lastradainternational.org/lsidocs/13%20Falling%20short%20of%20the%20mark%20(Future%20Group).pdf [accessed 23 April
2020] AUSTRALIA - Australia is
complying with its international obligations under the Trafficking Protocol
related to the protection of victims of human trafficking. Since 2003, it has
implemented a phased system of protection for victims of human trafficking
with enhanced residency status being tied to enhanced support services, which
are government funded. Specialized investigative teams have facilitated the
unique needs of trafficking victims being promptly addressed. RESIDENCE - The new
Australian approach to residence of trafficking victims is three-phased.
First, the “Bridging Visa F” lasts for 30 days while an investigation into
trafficking claims are being made. Secondly, if the victim agrees to assist
with the investigation, they are eligible for a “Criminal Justice Stay Visa”
(“CJS Visa”) which is valid for the duration of criminal proceedings in the
case they are assisting with. Thereafter, victims may apply for a “Witness
Protection (Trafficking) Visa” enabling them to remain in Australia on a
temporary or permanent basis, depending on individual circumstances. Ellison rejects
estimate of sex slave numbers Samantha Hawley, ABC
NewsOnLine, August 17, 2005 www.abc.net.au/news/2005-08-17/ellison-rejects-estimate-of-sex-slave-numbers/2082604 [accessed 19 January
2011] "I believe
that the number of people who have been deceptively recruited into the
industry in Phil Mercer, BBC
News, news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4740871.stm [accessed 19 January
2011] Sex trafficking
under the microscope Natalie O'Brien, The
Sun-Herald, July 10, 2005 www.smh.com.au/news/national/sex-trafficking-goes-under-the-microscope/2005/07/09/1120704596892.html [accessed 19 January
2011] Mr Milroy said the
syndicates might now be shifting their operations to other crimes. "I
think a lot of the attention ... has raised the level of awareness in the
community," he said. "Those
who are involved and are affected by this, as all criminal groups are when
you pay them attention, step back and realize this is too difficult and that
there are easier ways of making money." Trafficked Women
'Being Raped, Starved' The Sydney Morning
Herald, July 6, 2005 www.smh.com.au/news/National/Trafficked-women-being-raped-starved/2005/07/06/1120329497809.html [accessed 19 January
2011] There are at least 1,000
adult women in Children 'Handed
Over To Sex Ring' Jeremy Roberts, The
Australian, 24-5-2005 www.mako.org.au/ausnews391.html [accessed 19 January
2011] "The picture
is painted of young girls and boys who were frightened, unable to protect
themselves and make disclosure and who were abandoned by their carers [care givers]," says the report by Ted Mullighan, the commissioner of the inquiry into the sex
abuse of state wards. The report finds
that young boys from Two face sex
slavery charges Australian Federal
Police AFP, Melbourne, Australia, 2004-12-03 www.news24.com/World/News/Two-face-sex-slavery-charges-20041203 [accessed 19 January
2011] AFP agent Josephine
Accetta said Ho and another suspect, Hoting Yeung, ran two Accetta said a year-long
investigation had produced a "very strong case" including telephone
intercept evidence. Ho was recorded
trying to sell a 21-year-old woman for A$21 000 (about R95 000)
after flying to Sydney with Yeung in August this year. Yeung fled overseas on
November 4 and was not expected to return, Accetta
said. Australia to set
trafficking rules Reuters , www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2004/06/18/2003175534 [accessed 19 January
2011] The sex slavery
trade in Project Respect, a
group that represents women brought to Australia as sex slaves, believes
there could be up to 1,000 such women in the country at any one time. 10 reasons for NOT
legalizing prostitution [PDF] Janice G. Raymond,
Coalition Against Trafficking in Women International (CATW), March 25, 2003 www.prostitutionresearch.com/10%20reasons%20for%20not%20legalizing%20prostitution.pdf [accessed 23 July
2013] 2. LEGALIZATION/DECRIMINALIZATION OF PROSTITUTION AND THE SEX INDUSTRY
PROMOTES SEX TRAFFICKING - The link between
legalization of prostitution and trafficking in Australia was
recognized in the U.S. State Department’s 1999 Country Report on Human Rights
Practices, released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. In
the country report on Australia, it was noted that in the State of Victoria
which legalized prostitution in the 1980s, “Trafficking in East Asian women
for the sex trade is a growing problem” in Australia…lax laws including
legalized prostitution in parts of the country make [anti-trafficking]
enforcement difficult at the working level.” Statement by the
HON Mrs Christine Gallus MP, Parliamentary
Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, to the Commission on
Human Rights, High Level Segment, United Nations, Geneva, 16 March 2004 Australian Permanent
At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 3
September 2011] We are also
tackling issues such as trafficking in persons which are a grave threat to
the health and safety of women and children throughout the Asia Pacific. The Australian Government recently
strengthened its efforts to combat people trafficking through coordinated
activities within Australia and in the region. Australia has been strongly involved in the
Bali Process on People Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons, and Related
Transnational Crime. In October 2003,
the Government pledged more than $20 million over four years to combat
trafficking. We have also committed
more than $14 million to a number of projects in Cambodia, southwest China,
Laos, Burma, Thailand and Vietnam.
These projects aim to reduce people trafficking and improve
protection, recovery and reintegration of trafficked women and children. Last week, on
International Women’s Day, I announced Government funding of $200,000 to help
countries in the Sub-Continent to abolish sex slavery. And, I am pleased to advise that Australiawill soon ratify the Protocol to Prevent,
Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children. People smuggling
and trafficking in persons Australian
Government, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade - Illegal Immigration www.dfat.gov.au/illegal_immigration/ [accessed 19 January
2011] aic.gov.au/publications/tcb/tcb002 [accessed 23 April
2020] PEOPLE SMUGGLING - Australia, along
with the United States, New Zealand and Japan, funds the Bali Process on
People Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons and Related Transnational Crime (the
Bali Process). The Bali Process is a regional, multilateral process
designed to boost bilateral and regional cooperative efforts against people
smuggling and trafficking through technical workshops and increased
cooperation between interested countries, the Office of the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and International Organization for
Migration (IOM). Jim Pollard, The
Nation, 18 December 2003 yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/australia-tips-bt250m-help-people-trafficking-asean [accessed 26 May
2017] Thai and Australian
government officials yesterday discussed new moves to counter the trafficking
of "sex slaves" and other people Down Under and within the
region. Thailand is one of four Asean nations Australia will help to fight human
trafficking, along with Burma, Laos and Cambodia. Canberra is funding an
8.5-million Australian dollar (Bt250 million) project to provide a more
effective and coordinated approach by governments in Southeast Asia to
prevent trafficking. Christine Inglis, Migration Information Source, November 2003 www.migrationinformation.org/Feature/display.cfm?id=178 [accessed 19 January
2011] www.migrationpolicy.org/article/australia-unveils-initiative-stop-human-trafficking [accessed 25
December 2019] As part of the
package, a new 23-member Australian Federal Police team will be established
to investigate trafficking, and a senior migration officer will be appointed
to Thailand, a major source of women trafficked into Australia. Support
services will be developed for victims of trafficking, including those who
will be kept in detention and for those returned to source countries in
Southeast Asia. One factor
underlying the attention to human trafficking is undoubtedly the media
spotlight on the detention of female trafficking victims, including the death
at the Villawood Immigration Detention Center of a
young woman who had allegedly been brought to Australia as a 12-year-old for
commercial sex work. Lobbying by women's groups outraged by this and other
incidents played a key role in putting the issue on the political agenda. Trafficking sex Jennifer Burn, newsroom.uts.edu.au/news/2005/06/trafficking-sex [accessed 30 August
2014] This month I heard
about Mary who is currently detained in the Villawood
Immigration Detention Centre. Mary arrived in Australia on a student visa in
1999. She had been promised a restaurant job and a chance to study. When she
arrived her new 'boss' took her to a house in Cabramatta,
a makeshift prison tucked away in suburbia. He then told her that she owed
him money for her visa and her air ticket. To pay back this debt Mary was
forced to sleep with 500 men before eventually escaping from the brothel with
the help of a client. Trafficking and the
Sex Industry: from Impunity to Protection Dr Kerry Carrington,
Social Policy Group & Jane Hearn, Law and Bills Digest Group, Information
And Research Services, Current Issues Brief No. 28 2002–03, 13 May 2003 Click [here] to access the article. Its URL is not displayed because of its
length [accessed 23 July
2013] This brief provides
an overview of the trafficking of women and children into the Australian sex
industry in the context of the global trade in people trafficking. It
examines why there have been no prosecutions of traffickers under existing
Commonwealth laws. It explains how Australia's emphasis on border control is
working against the prosecution of traffickers and the human rights of
trafficking victims and explains how existing Australian policy and law will
need to change to meet the new internationally agreed standards to punish
traffickers and support victims under the UN Trafficking Protocol. Jammed: Trafficked
Women in Extracts from a
paper based on the presentation given by Georgina Costello, Refugee Team,
Amnesty International, STOP THE TRAFFIC
SYMPOSIUM, RMIT, KASAMA Vol. 16 No. 2
/ April–May–June 2002 / Solidarity cpcabrisbane.org/Kasama/2002/V16n2/Jammed.htm [accessed 19 January
2011] In September 2001,
a young Vietnamese woman died in Villawood
Immigration Detention Centre in In January 2002,
there was a second death of a trafficked Vietnamese woman in Villawood. This woman had made at least one previous
suicide attempt. It is believed that she died in hospital from injuries caused
when she jumped out of a window from the first floor of the women’s
dormitory. To date, there has been no coronial inquest into the deaths. Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child, September 30, 2005 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/australia2005.html [accessed 19 January
2011] [67] While the
Committee welcomes some positive developments in the context of prevention of
trafficking and forced prostitution, such as the adoption of the National
Plan of Action to Eradicate Trafficking in Persons of October 2003 and the
changes to the Criminal Code in 2005 whereby, inter alia, trafficking in
persons and child pornography have been criminalized, the Committee is
concerned that Australia continues to be a destination country for trafficked
women and girls in the sex industry. [69] The State
party is also encouraged to become a party to the Protocol to Prevent,
Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children,
supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized
Crime, to which Human Rights
Overview Human Rights Watch [accessed 19 January
2011] ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Freedom House
Country Report - Political Rights: 1 Civil Liberties: 1 Status: Free 2018 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/australia/freedom-world/2018 [accessed 23 April
2020] G4. DO INDIVIDUALS
ENJOY EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM FROM ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION? In 2017, the
government was in its third year of a five-year action plan to combat human
trafficking and slavery. The program has resulted in the investigation of
over 100 trafficking cases, and the identification
of more than over 30 victims from mid-2016 to mid-2017. 2017 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 20 April 2018 www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2017/eap/277065.htm
[accessed 12 March
2019] www.state.gov/reports/2017-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/australia/ [accessed 24 June
2019] PROHIBITION OF
FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR The government
effectively enforced applicable labor laws, but did not obtain any successful
prosecutions of criminal laws prohibiting forced labor during the year. The
majority of forced labor cases, however, were addressed through civil law.
The law provides for sufficiently stringent penalties against forced labor
commensurate with those prescribed for other serious crimes. There were reports
some foreign nationals, who came to the country for temporary work, were
subjected to forced labor in such sectors as agriculture, cleaning,
construction, hospitality, and domestic service. Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61601.htm [accessed 4 February
2020] TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS
– Some women, primarily from In response to the
report's recommendations, in June the government expanded existing
anti-trafficking laws to include new offenses for debt bondage, child
trafficking, and domestic trafficking, with penalties of up to 25 years in
prison, and in September ratified the UN Trafficking Protocol. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this webpage as: Patt,
Prof. Martin, "Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery - |
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