Threats, debts and isolation: the new chains of slavery


THEIR position is akin to modern slavery, but people who have been trafficked to Australia to work for little pay in appalling conditions are often kept not by chains but physical or cultural isolation, threats of violence, obligations to repay debt, or the promise of permanent residency, a report says.

The report on labour trafficking by the Australian Institute of Criminology says the problem in Australia is underestimated and ranges from slavery to industrial breaches.

It focuses not on the better-known exploitation of women in the sex industry but draws attention to the approximately half a million migrant workers who could be exploited in industries such as agriculture, construction, cleaning, meat works and manufacturing.


To properly regulate such situations would require a greater use of labour laws rather than relying on the criminal law, which has a greater burden of proof, the report recommends.

Criminal laws should focus on lesser forms of exploitation and be updated in response to varying circumstances, it suggests.

''Employers will continue to demonstrate ingenuity in inventing ways that are powerfully coercive yet difficult to prove, to effectively control and manipulate migrant workers in order to take advantage of their unpaid services,'' it says.

This should include laws to target practices such confiscating passports, withholding wages and deceptive recruitment.

There have been only a few prosecutions but federal police have conducted 270 investigation since 2004, about a fifth of which involved prostitution.

Authorities and community groups around Australia have gathered examples of hundreds who have complained about being underpaid, threatened, abused, deceived or coerced.

The Salvation Army's Sydney Safe House for Trafficked Women received referrals for 61 people ranging in age from 16 to 56. Of the 37 eligible for the service, 20 reported their cases to police or immigration authorities.

Few cases are believed to meet the strict international criteria of trafficking, which include retention of passports, withholding of wages and control over living and working conditions. Many of the most serious remain hidden because the exploitation of migrant workers ''could arguably be characterised as low-risk, high-profit activities'', the report says.

Cultural and physical isolation, language problems, family obligations and debt from agents' fees make workers vulnerable. A lack of understanding of Australia's laws and practices and of support groups contributes to under-reporting.

The problem is exacerbated when employers ''hold out the prize of permanent residency as a method of control'', creating a situation in which ''both the employer and the employee are essentially complicit in exploitative situations''.

Holders of 457 visas are high on the list of exploited workers. Others include international students, domestic workers, skilled butchers and people on tourist visas seeking work illegally.

Among the cases in the report were eight Filipino chefs sold by a Canberra restaurant owner, 10 nurses forced to work as unpaid cleaners, men employed in abattoirs whose wives had to clean up animal manure, and a Cook Islands man who was physically abused and refused medical care.