Torture in [Australia] [other countries]Human Trafficking in [Australia Street Children in [Australia] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Australia] [other countries] |
Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery In the early years
of the 21st Century 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 [full country report] |
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CAUTION: The following
links have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in ***
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 *** Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61601.htm [accessed 19 January 2011] 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. 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 Testimony of Deng US Department of State actioncenter.polarisproject.org/the-frontlines/survivor-testimonies/38-testimonies/60-testimony-of-den [access date unavailable] Deng, in her late
20's, was recruited in her native UQ study looks at foreign sex worker
exploitation and human trafficking www.uq.edu.au/news/?article=16004 [accessed 19 January 2011] 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] 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 Freedom House
Country Report - Political Rights: 1 Civil Liberties: 1 Status: Free 2009 Edition www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2009/australia [accessed 26 June 2012] Human Rights
Overview Human Rights Watch [accessed 19 January 2011] 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. 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. 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 Janice G. Raymond, Coalition Against
Trafficking in Women International (CATW), March 25, 2003 www.prostitutionresearch.com/laws/000022.html [accessed 19 January 2011] 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] PEOPLE SMUGGLING - Jim Pollard, The Nation, 18 December 2003 yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/australia-tips-bt250m-help-people-trafficking-asean-0 [accessed 19 January 2011] 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] 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 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.tmp.anchor.net.au/news/2005/06/trafficking-sex [accessed 19 January 2011] 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 [accessed 18 April 2012] 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. 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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