Human trafficking in Australia

[1] In September 2005, Australia ratified the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children,[2] which supplemented the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.

[10]Migrant sex workers targeted by anti-trafficking policing in Australia have had their human rights curtailed and their workplaces have been impacted in negative ways.

[14] In 2023, the Organised Crime Index gave the country a score of 3.5 out of 10 for human trafficking, noting that two-thirds of prosecutions did not reach court.

[15] In February 2010, two traffickers were convicted in Cairns Supreme Court on charges of possessing and using a slave after luring a Filipina woman to Australia and enslaving her as a domestic servant and concubine.

[18][19][20][21][22] Following the Migration Amendment (Employer Sanctions) Act 2007, the exploitation of unlawful non-citizen workers are aggravating factors attracting a higher penalty.

Consequently, designated law enforcement agencies, including the Australian Federal Police, can seek permission to intercept relevant telephone calls and emails for the purposes of investigating trafficking offences.

The majority of Australian states and territories use the Fair Work Act 2009 to cover the domestic workers, providing a minimum employment standard and workplace protection.

[25] In 2017, the government increased law enforcement efforts, where divisions 270 and 271 of the Commonwealth Criminal Code which pertain to sex and labour trafficking, identified maximum penalties of 12 to 25 years in prison and fines of up to AUD197,000 ($154,030).

[6] Assistant Minister for Home Affairs, Hon Alex Hawke MP, was committed to present the Parliamentary draft of the Modern Slavery Act by June 2018.

The statements need to address mandatory criteria from Part 2 of the Commonwealth Act, including the company's structure, operations and supply chains, the modern slavery risks in those areas, the necessary actions in which the company has taken to address those risks and its effectiveness, as well as state the consultation process with its subsidiaries throughout the Modern Slavery Statement process.

The visa framework falls short of protecting the human rights of trafficking victims who are unable to assist in the criminal justice process.

In November 2008, the Australian government released its 457 Integrity Review containing a significant number of recommendations to improve subclass 457 visas and overcome latent workplace discrimination.

[40] Mr Rasalingam, an Indian restaurant owner in Glenbrook in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, was charged with trafficking offences under the Criminal Code (Cth).

During the trial, the victim testified that upon arrival in Australia, his passport and airline ticket were taken away from him, he was forced to sleep on the floor, and was told that he would be deported if he complained to the authorities.

[41] Keith Dobie was charged on 19 July 2006 with trafficking in persons, presenting false information to an immigration officer, and dealing in the proceeds of crime.

While the Deputy Coroner, Carl Milovanovich, was unable to confirm her history of sexual slavery, this being outside his jurisdiction, he was concerned enough to urge law enforcement authorities to address the trafficking of women into prostitution with 'vigour and appropriate resources'.

Queen v Wei Tang [2008] HCA 39 High Court held that the prosecution did not need to prove that the defendant knew or believed that the women were slaves.

[43] The defendants were charged under the Commonwealth Criminal Code and convicted for conducting a business involving the sexual servitude of others, namely four Thai women who were subject to debt contracts of around $45,000 each.

With the Court holding at 95 that the 'definition of sexual servitude [in the Commonwealth Criminal Code] ... is concerned only with a very specific respect in which there is a limitation on the freedom of action of the person in question.

It provides an assessment about the known or likely incidence of trafficking in persons that can occur in the agricultural, cleaning, hospitality, construction and manufacturing industries, or in less formal sectors such as domestic work and home-help".

[45] The research suggests "the existence of under-reporting, but a lack of awareness among a wide variety of 'front line' agencies and service providers that certain exploitative practices in a work context are in fact criminal under Australian law".

[48] The research notes that cases of unreported labour trafficking exist in an environment of broader unlawful conduct perpetrated against migrant workers in Australia.

As such, it is important for the anti-trafficking response to consider not only the most extreme instances in isolation, but also the broader environment that is arguably the breeding ground for more severe criminal conduct.

[52] The report also notes the importance of building community awareness of this crime type particularly amongst front line service providers in the labour sector.

Recognise families and children have special needs The guidelines also have a referral guide providing contact details of anti-trafficking NGOs and government organizations.

The purpose of the Project is to promote a more effective and coordinated approach to people trafficking by criminal justice systems of governments in the Asia region.

[56] Australia's contribution of A$22.8 million to the overall program is supporting the Government of the Philippines to implement the convention on the Rights of the Child through a national 'Child-Friendly Movement' (CFM).

Partnerships are developed with local government and capacity building is provided for caregivers working with at-risk children to improve professional responses to child protection issues.

Between 2002 and 2005 this included a series of training activities and workshops for officials and community-level workers on practical methods to combat trafficking of women and children, focused in the provinces of Guizhou and Sichuan.

The goal of this project is to improve the capacity of referral agencies to support and reintegrate suspected victims of trafficking who return from Australia to Thailand.