New push to combat people trafficking in Australia
Updated
The attempt to curb the insidious trade in people trafficking is a major issue between Australia and its Asian neighbours.
The US State Department estimates that up to 800,000 people were trafficked internationally in 2008 in a trade worth more than $40 billion annually.
What is less well understood is that traffickers are active inside developed countries, including Australia.
There is scant research on those who are sold into slavery in Australia and the government, official agencies and NGOs are combining for a new push against the practice.
Presenter: Linda Mottram
Speaker: Catherine Branson, Commissioner for Human Rights, Australia; Bob Debus, Minister for Home Affairs, Australia; Associate Professor Jennifer Burn, Director, Anti-Slavery Project, University of Technology, Sydney
- Listen:
- Windows Media
MOTTRAM: Australia is not a major destination for people traffickers, but it is doubtless an attractive one as those who seek to exploit others' labour in a modern form of slavery work to lure the unsuspecting with offers of jobs in a wealthy, developed country.
BRANSON: I suspect many people do not even realise that practices like slavery take place in 21st century Australia.
Catherine Branson is Australia's Commissioner for Human Rights.
BRANSON: Some people who have been trafficked will not even realise that what has happened to them is a crime under Australian law. The right to an effective remedy, including compensation, when rights have been violated will always remain elusive if you do not know what your rights are or how to get legal advice.
MOTTRAM: Catherine Branson was speaking at the launch of a new set of guidelines for Australian groups that find themselves working with trafficked people. The guidelines spell out issues such as informed consent, privacy and culturally appropriate treatment of victims. Also launched was a fact sheet for victims on their legal rights which is translated into Chinese, Thai and Korean, as well as Vietnamese and Tagalog. It'll be circulated within those community groups in Australia. The minister responsible for the Australian government's anti-people trafficking strategy, Bob Debus, says the launch signals success at getting what he calls a whole of community approach to trafficking.
DEBUS: What I'm anxious to see is that the government agencies and the non-government agencies are able to continue to co-operate and no doubt improve the techniques that they use both to identify people and then to assist victims, especially when victims are able to in turn provide evidence that will help us to prosecute those who've been engaged in this particularly unpleasant trade.
MOTTRAM: There's scant research on the numbers of trafficked people in Australia. Figures from the Australian government's Victim Support Program show that 107 people, all but one of them women, have been through that program in the past four years. Sixty-five per cent were Thai nationals, 19 per cent were from South Korea.
Associate professor Jennifer Burn is director of the anti-slavery project at the University of Technology, Sydney. She's been an important driver of the efforts against people trafficking in Australia.
BURN: The pattern of people trafficking into Australia is through the legitimate visa system. It's not apparent that people are smuggled in in the way that we see asylum seekers coming into Australia, rather people are entering here, Australia, through one of the airports holding a passport and a visa.
MOTTRAM: Are the immigration authorities in Australia looking at those issues with a view to perhaps changing the system?
BURN: They've been very open to discussing these issues with us. The Department of Immigration has introduced some legislation that's designed to protect foreign workers in Australia. Ultimately we want to have a system that ensures that there is less trafficking into Australia, so that there is a high level of prevention of trafficking but if people are trafficked then that we have really good systems of protection once here.
MOTTRAM: As the Australian immigration authorities work on that very large issue, Professor Burn is also anxious to see improvements to the existing Victim Support Program, which currently only gives a victim support if that victim will help the police. And that could be intimidating enough to stop a victim from coming forward.
BURN: If a person can't help the police then there's really nothing that's available to them in recognition of their status as a victim of crime.
MOTTRAM: And is that likely to change, is the government considering changing that?
BURN: We've put these recommendations to the government and the indications from the Department of Immigration and the Attorney General's department is that there will be a different kind of approach.
MOTTRAM: The minister, Bob Debus, says significant numbers of people who've been trafficked are helping with prosecutions, with about 15 people currently before the Australian courts on trafficking charges. But he says change is being considered that might see protective visas issued to victims who don't assist in legal cases.
