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The Australian government has warned that people trafficking into Australia, largely from Southeast Asia, is under reported - but there is a new report that suggests South Korea was the main source country for trafficked sex workers to Australia in the past year. Many of the cases involve the sex industry, but there's growing concern that more and more cases are found in other sectors. The issues will be discussed at a national round table meeting in Canberra next week - along with proposals to add new offences to the Australian criminal code.
Presenter: Linda Mottram, Canberra correspondent
Speakers: Brendan O'Connor, Australian minister for home affairs and justice; Associate Professor Jennifer Burn, director, Anti-Slavery Project, University of Technology, Sydney
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MOTTRAM: Since the early part of the decade, Australian authorities have focussed increasingly on the insidious traffic in humans, particularly for sexual slavery, establishing new levels of regional cooperation, as well as changing visa regulations to give victims of trafficking more sympathetic options, as well as to allow perpetrators to be held in Australia for prosecution. And while the overall numbers of people being trafficked into Australia remain low, the crimes, which see people sold into modern day slavery, physically abused and held in debt bondage to criminals, are considered so appalling in the modern context that many Australians would be shocked to know it goes on at all in their midst.
O'CONNOR: It is such a heinous crime that we want to do whatever we can to fix the problem.
MOTTRAM: Brendan O'Connor is Australia's minister for home affairs and justice.
O'CONNOR: I think it's true to say that sexual servitude, given the nature of the crime, has been a focus as it should be and indeed support for victims of sexual servitude has been enhanced by the government, so there's been a response to that but it is also the case that we've got major issues with people being exploited for their labor in other sectors of the economy, including construction and hospitality.
MOTTRAM: And that's been highlighted in only the second report from the Australian government outlining the state of efforts to combat human trafficking in and into Australia. It says for example that in 2009-10 there were nine human trafficking convictions in Australian courts, with five cases currently underway. It also notes that the majority of the 38 Australian Federal Police investigations into human trafficking last year related to sexual servitude. But it also says that 800 investigations conducted during 2009-10 by Australia's Fair Work Ombudsman and involving overseas workers in Australia recovered more than half a million dollars in unpaid entitlements. It's just one of the issues for workers who are not treated according to the law.
Lawyer Jennifer Burn heads the Anti-Slavery Project based at the University of Technology, Sydney. She has been one of the workers in the area helping drive recent reforms and she well be at the coming National Round Table meeting on trafficking.
BURN: There is an increase in people trafficked into other kinds of industries in Australia. So there are reported cases of people trafficked into hospitality, or construction, or agriculture, for example. So one of the areas for discussion will be how to raise the awareness of the breadth of labour trafficking in the Australian community and how to give information about pathways to protection where people are identified as being trafficked.
MOTTRAM: Indeed, following the lead of such advocates, the minister, Brendan O'Connor, will shortly release a paper on options that could include further criminalising aspects of labour trafficking and forced labour that are not yet caught by Australia's criminal code. He will also release a second paper on another issue that Jennifer Burn says needs to be criminalised too.
BURN: We would like to see a discussion around the area of forced marriage, a consideration of whether it would be desirable to include a new offence of forced marriage in the Australian criminal code.
MOTTRAM: The government's latest human trafficking report has also found that where Thailand was formerly the main source country for people trafficked to Australia, South Korea now has that mantle. But that may not be because more South Koreans are being trafficked.
Brendan O'Connor again.
O'CONNOR: It's true to say that there's been detection of an increase on people coming from, or being trafficked from, Korea but that I also think underlines the effective cooperation between the Australian and Korean police and other agencies working closely.
MOTTRAM: But all the players in the fight against trafficking agree that the criminals are agile.
Jennifer Burn again.
BURN: People who are willing to exploit others in this way for commercial gain will adapt the methods of transport and exploitation to meet a changing law enforcement scenario.
Source: Radio Australia
