Asia Times: Law against trafficking in women meets protests



	January 16, 1999	atimes.com

Oceania

Law against trafficking in women meets protests
By Andrew Nette

MELBOURNE - A proposed law in Australiaaims to curb trafficking in women for the sex industry, butactivists and critics say it would harm the very people it isdesigned to protect.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Australian Federal Police estimates that there are up to200 to 300 female ''sex slaves'' working in illegal brothels inAustralia, mainly in Sydney and Melbourne.

Many of these women had wanted a new life outside theirhomeland, 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 godirectly to the brothel owner until her debt is paid back.

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

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

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

''From what I know, Thai women have to pay as much as 40,000Australian dollars (25.6 million U.S. dollars) for a contract towork in a brothel in Australia,'' says Snow. ''We have heardstories 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 thetrade of powerful organised crime syndicates from around theglobe, and its links to other illegal activities such as narcoticsand money laundering.

Legislation currently in place only deals with people who havebeen kidnapped and forced into the sex industry, but does notcover those that came voluntarily and found their contracts werenot what they thought.

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

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

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

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

''The reality is that what the movement of Asian women to workin the Australian sex industry is enormously complex, involvingeverything from mail order brides, to women coming out on studentand tourism visas, to systematic criminal trafficking,'' saysMcMenamin.

''The majority of the women from Thailand, for example, chooseto come here and feel they are doing much better than they wouldbe back home,'' she explains. ''There is also the question of howyou 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 thewomen once they are deported from Australia,'' adds Snow. ''Iwould suggest it could reinforce the contract, and they willprobably be sent to another country."

Organisations representing sex workers point to models in someEuropean countries such as the Netherlands, which providestrafficked women with the opportunity to stay in their new countryif 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 stepwhich they claim could go some way in cutting out the recruitersand 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, othersargue they do not want to encourage the recognition of sex work asa profession.

(Inter Press Service)