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Backpackers said to excort illegal sex workers
December 9, 1999
The Australian government says international smuggling rings often pay European
backpackers to escort illegal sex workers into the country from the Middle East
and Asia, according to a wire service report.
"Smugglers who specialize in the movement of people from the Middle East often
recruit young European backpackers as escorts," said an immigration department
report "Protecting the Border," obtained by Reuters.
Mainly female, the recruits to the Australian sex business were brought in from
around the world, though the majority may have been from Asia, the report says.
The report calls it a "particularly insidious" operation with "sophisticated
employment rackets" common in the Australian sex business, according to
Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock, who spoke to Reuters.
More pertinent, the report says, women recruited for the Australian sex
business overseas often fall into debt with smugglers and end up "effectively"
enslaved in brothels as they try to pay off.
Prostitution is said to be Australia's second most common activity for illegal
immigrants behind the food service industry. Many arrive on false passports or
overstay tourist, student, or holiday work visas, Reuters says; others, the
wire service says, use sham marriages to disguise illegal immigration.
"They are generally attracted by the quick money offered and are usually
recruited by friends and relatives who themselves have been through a contrived
marriage," the report says.
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