Law against trafficking in women meets protests

By Andrew Nette
January 16, 1999

MELBOURNE - A proposed law in Australia aims to curb trafficking in women for the sex industry, but activists and critics say it would harm the very people it is designed to protect.

As it is, the draft law, released by Justice Minister Amanda Vanstone on Jan 5, has run into controversy even before it reachesParliament.

Under the measure, racketeers engaging in "sex slavery" in to Australia will face up to 25 years in jail.

The law, which the government hopes will be adopted by all seven of Australia's states some time in the year, will replacepresent legislation which is based on 19th century United Kingdom Imperial Slave Trade Acts.

The government maintains the changes are necessary to prevent Australia from becoming a safe haven for what police, governmentofficials and sex worker organisations all agree is a rapidly growing traffic of Asian women into the Australian sex industry.

This is expected to increase due to the prolonged impacts of the regional economic crisis.

"Attacking the procurers is an important step, but we have to be aware of the potential impacts this will have on the womenthemselves," cautions Bernadette McMenamin, national director of End Child Prostitution, Pornography and Trafficking (ECPAT).

Groups working with sex workers have also weighed in. "The priority for us is the question of the women's rights," says Jocelyn Snow of the Prostitutes Collective of Victoria (PCV).

"It's not the agents that are going to get deported as a result of the law, it's the women," she says. "It's not solvingthe problem, for every women deported there are hundreds willing to come to take her place."

The Australian Federal Police estimates that there are up to 200 to 300 female "sex slaves" working in illegal brothels in Australia, mainly in Sydney and Melbourne.

Many of these women had wanted a new life outside their homeland, were recruited by people with ties to highly organisedsyndicates who offer them air travel to Australia, accommodation, food and money for clothes in return for selling themselves oncethey arrive.

These contracts demand that a woman's brothel earnings go directly to the brothel owner until her debt is paid back.

The vast majority of the women come from Thailand, with other recruits coming from the Philippines, Vietnam, China, Malaysia andincreasingly Indonesia.

Since 1996, Australian federal police has reported at least 14 incidents of foreign women getting into debt to racketeers after being trafficked to Australia to work in brothels, including someas young as 13 years old.

Many cannot speak English, and are effectively imprisoned until they have paid off their debts, with little access to food andmedical care.

"From what I know, Thai women have to pay as much as 40,000 Australian dollars (25.6 million U.S. dollars) for a contract towork in a brothel in Australia," says Snow. "We have heard stories that sometimes they are not free once they have paid offthe amount required by the contract."

Concerns have also been raised over the participation in the trade of powerful organised crime syndicates from around the globe, and its links to other illegal activities such as narcotics and money laundering.

Legislation currently in place only deals with people who have been kidnapped and forced into the sex industry, but does not cover those that came voluntarily and found their contracts werenot what they thought.

The changes sought by the Australian government would punish racketeers involved in trafficking women into conditions that areconsidered slave-like.

There will also be a harsh new penalty for using deception to recruit foreign employees into the Australian sex industry.

"Despite all the headlines, no one really knows the extent of the problem," cautions McMenamin. "There has been no solidinvestigation into it since the early nineties, and most of those women who have been identified have been accidentally stumbledupon by police and immigration officials."

"The priority should be to gain a better understanding of the issue before you pass laws on the subject," she says.

"The reality is that what the movement of Asian women to work in the Australian sex industry is enormously complex, involvingeverything from mail order brides, to women coming out on student and tourism visas, to systematic criminal trafficking," says McMenamin.

"The majority of the women from Thailand, for example, choose to come here and feel they are doing much better than they wouldbe back home," she explains. "There is also the question of how you distinguish a so-called 'sex slave' from an illegal worker," she adds.

Sex worker organisations claim the proposed trafficking lawcould force the activities of traffickers and illegal brothelowners further underground, making it even more difficult for themto access the women for health and legal assistance.

"There is also the broader question of what happens to the women once they are deported from Australia," adds Snow. "I would suggest it could reinforce the contract, and they will probably be sent to another country."

Organisations representing sex workers point to models in some European countries such as the Netherlands, which provides trafficked women with the opportunity to stay in their new country if they fear harm on returning home.

The sex industry has also suggested issuing working visas toAsian women who seek work as sex workers in Australia, a step which they claim could go some way in cutting out the recruiters and their exploitative practices.

But this is a controversial issue among groups working onwomen's and labour issues in the region. Some view it as arealistic way of addressing the plight of sex workers, others argue they do not want to encourage the recognition of sex work asa profession.

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