KIM NGUYEN
What is human trafficking?
Human trafficking is the second largest form of organised crime in the world. It is essentially the“buying and selling of human beings”. The U.N estimates that about 2.5 million people from 127 countries are trafficked around the world, every year. Nearly every country is a source, transit or destination (or combination of these three) for trafficked victims.
Human trafficking occurs in a various industries including: agriculture, hospitality, and sweatshops However, about 80% of human trafficking cases reported are related to sex slavery and sexual exploitation. This is referred to as “sex trafficking”.
What is sex trafficking?
-Elements of Sex Trafficking:
- The acts: Recruiting, transporting, and transferring people
- Means: Threatening or using force, coercing people, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power or vulnerability, or giving payments or benefits to a person in control of the victim;
Purpose: Prostituting others, sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, or slavery.
Australia’s role in sex trafficking:
We may think that a first-world country like Australia wouldn’t be home to sex trafficking.. But there are traces of this global injustice within our borders. While Australia doesn’t necessarily actively participate, it is still a destination country for people being trafficked.
Between 1000-2000 girls and women are trafficked from countries in South-East Asia (Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea, China) and even Eastern Europe to undertake commercial prostitution in Australia, in brothels, sex shows and online pornography. Often the girls/women have been cruelly deceived by their recruiting work agencies. They arrive in Australia with the hope of a starting a better life, being able to learn English as a student, working in a restaurant, or at least, earning a high salary in the sex industry.
While some women agree to work in this industry, the majority of them are unaware of the nature and conditions of their work and are forced into prostitution in order to pay off “debts” (airfares, visas) to the traffickers, which can range from $18,000 – $50,000. They are bought and sold like cattle at auctions and subjected to physical and sexual exploitation by their employers, including rape, torture, starvation, threats of death/harm, if they attempt to seek assistance or to escape. Some girls as young as fourteen and work up to 15 hrs a day, 7 days a week, servicing up to ten men per shift, even while they’re ill.
In just the first two months, a girl would have serviced, on average, 400 men.
A Thai woman who was recently rescued from a brothel in St Kilda explained that “[w]hat happened to us was a nightmare, we worked from 11am to 4am and only slept 3-4 hours a night. They treated us like animals. We were sexually abused, we were dragged, we were hit. Some of us were given drugs so we could work all the time. The traffickers threatened us, we were scared, they could hurt us and our families.”
Why it’s happening:
-Lack of accountability:
There are still dozens of unlicensed and unidentified brothels operating around Melbourne, including Richmond and St Kilda as well around Australia that are involved in sex trafficking. In some cases, residents living near those venues are aware that there are women are being abused. However, many of them choose not report this to the police because they don’t want to be involved and they fear reprisals.
-Lack of prosecution:
Since 2004, the Australian Federal Police have undertaken 112 investigations and have charged 29 people for sex trafficking. Of these, 15 of the cases are still being heard in the courts, whereas in the other 14 cases, there were mistrials and charges were dropped due to “insufficient evidence.” This means the perpetrators have not only escaped punishment for their crimes, but they are allowed back into our communities to continue trafficking and exploiting women.
-Lack of protection:
According to a study conducted by the University of Sydney, although there is a support program for trafficked women, the services are poorly funded, uncoordinated and lacking in numerous resources. Under this program, all victims are only granted protection for 45 days. From then on, they have to cooperate with the police to prosecute the traffickers in order to be eligible for support services. Basically, if a woman is considered not a reliable witness by the police, then no government help is provided at all. Some are deported back to their country, where they face the likelihood of being ostracised by their families and village communities as well as being exploited and re-trafficked. Some women are simply left to fend for themselves, They are isolated and alone, barely able to speak English and are dependent on the assistance of NGOS and religious groups.
Why should we care?
Sex-trafficking violates human rights.
The Australian government and the community need to take greater measures to protect these vulnerable women. Women should not be bought and sold like commodities.
Every woman should have the right to feel safe and be treated with respect and dignity, regardless of their ethnic background and regardless of the amount of time or their reasons for being in Australia.
Australia has a moral obligation to eradicate this trade of human misery and degradation and to protect victims, in order to address the international problem of trafficking.
Fundamentally, it is our moral obligation as human beings to put an end to this.
Sexual exploitation and slavery is happening in our country, in our communities and in our streets – except the victims are hidden. It is time we made some noise to reach out and find them.
SOURCES:
http://www.humantrafficking.org/countries/australia
Social Catalysts 