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(Non-sex industry) labour trafficking: A forum to discuss trafficking in persons in contexts other than the commercial sex industry (2009)

Sex Discrimination

(Non-sex industry) labour trafficking: A forum to discuss trafficking in persons in contexts other than the commercial sex industry

Speech to the Australian Institute of Criminology

Elizabeth Broderick

Sex Discrimination Commissioner and Commissioner responsible for Age Discrimination

18 June 2009


I would like to begin by acknowledging we are gathered here today on the traditional land of Ngunnawal people and pay my respects to their elders.

It is wonderful to be here today at a forum that brings together so many people with different insights on what we need to do to effectively tackle the issue of labour trafficking. Immigration experts, law enforcement officers, labour law specialists, service providers, NGOs, researchers, even human rights lawyers!

Yesterday the Government announced reforms that will significantly improve the protection of trafficked people and simplify a needlessly complex visa framework that left people helping police facing years of uncertainty.

When I heard the news I was just delighted. Only last month I had met with women at the Anti-Slavery Project who were, at the time on temporary visas - they will now have certainty that is provided by a permanent witness protection visa. This permanent visa will also be available to immediate family members – and speaking as a mother of two young children - I understand just how much this reform matters to people who are desperate to be reunited with their family

As one woman I met said she didn’t have the words to describe how happy she felt –having a permanent visa meant that she could have security and certainty to finally move on with her life without fear of being returned to her home country, to study without paying international student fees, and to confidently go out and get a job. She had a new beginning.

These reforms promotes a relationship of trust between trafficked people and law enforcement that will strengthen Australia’s criminal justice response to trafficking and improve protection for trafficked people.  These reforms have come about because the government has worked collaboratively with NGOs, law enforcement, human rights experts, and government agencies to develop a more effective and humane way to support victims.

Trafficking involves the movement of people across or within borders through coercive, deceptive or abusive means for the purpose of exploitation. It is crime under international law and Australian law. It is a violation of people’s basic human rights. Women, men and children are trafficked to many different industries for labour exploitation as well as other forms of exploitation such as forced marriage.

Yesterday the National Roundtable on People Trafficking focused on the issue of labour trafficking and we are beginning to see more cases of labour trafficking being identified. This focus is both welcome and timely.

In tough economic times the incentive to engage in one of the world’s most profitable crimes will grow, just as the financial pressures on those vulnerable to trafficking will increase.

The 2009 United States Trafficking in Persons Report says that ‘the forced labour implications of the financial crisis are particularly stark for Asia … a region with a high level of job insecurity’.1 The International Labour Organisation has predicted a worst case scenario of 113 million unemployed in 2009 in Asia alone.

This means more supply and more demand for human trafficking. This is why we need to look at everyway we can to safeguard the rights of migrant workers. Most migrant workers will be unfamiliar with their rights under Australian law.  They may see working in Australia as the chance to transform their lives and the lives of their families. They may not see themselves despite being victims of crime, despite being subjected to conditions of extreme exploitation.

This is the story that one man told to the Anti-Slavery Project.

I lost my job in my home country when the factory I worked in closed down. A friend introduced me to a man who said that he had a factory in Australia. He said that he would pay me a lot of money to work in his factory. Although it was a hard decision to leave my family, I decided to come to Australia for 2 or 3 years, to earn money.  I wanted my family to have a better life. I needed to work and I couldn’t get a job in my country.

As soon as I arrived in Australia, my ‘boss’ took my passport away. For more than a year, I worked every day in the factory, for 12 or 13 hours. I was not paid a wage and I was not allowed to go outside. For the first couple of months, my boss sent a small amount of money to my family, but then he stopped. I was verbally and psychologically abused. My boss said that if I tried to escape he would kill my family. He said that if I tried to go home, he would find me and kill me. On a couple of occasions, I was physically beaten.2

The combination of the lack of information about their rights and immigration status and the universal desire to find a better life can leave migrant workers vulnerable to exploitation in Australia.

The cases of trafficking in Australia often occupy a grey area where the question of whether a person was effectively enslaved or forced to work is contested and unclear. The answers to this question may only become clear after a person has been identified and the circumstances of their alleged exploitation have been fully investigated.

As we know, for some people who are trafficked, the available evidence may not be sufficient to support a criminal conviction. However, international law is clear – a person’s status as a victim of crime does not depend on convicting the perpetrator.3 This means that we need to look beyond the criminal prosecutions to secure justice for trafficked people.

A core principle that underpins international human rights law is that if you have your human rights violated, you should able to seek an effective remedy in the country where the abuse occurred.4

What is becoming increasingly clear is that for trafficked people there may be many different pathways to effective remedies.5 Sometimes the legal remedies may be available through existing workplace relations or discrimination laws. You may be aware of the complaint that was made to ACT Human Rights Commission by Filipino workers who were alleged to have been ‘treated like slaves’ in well-known Canberra restaurants. What interests me about this case is that the men complained of racial vilification, as well as making complaints to recover unpaid wages under workplace relations laws.

To my mind we have not yet fully explored the full range of legal avenues that may be available to secure justice for trafficked people. In Australia we are beginning to realize the potential of workplace relations law to address labour trafficking, but we have not yet looked carefully at the different avenues for victims to obtain compensation. In some cases it may be helpful to look at discrimination laws that prohibit racial vilification, sexual harassment and discrimination.

We need an integrated rights based approach to makes sure that people identified as suspected trafficking victims get access to legal advice and culturally appropriate information about all their rights and entitlements including how to seek compensation. Workplace authorities, unions and employer organizations need to know how to refer suspected victims of trafficking to police and specialist services.

Building the capacity of migrant workers to exercise their legal rights is – I believe – an important way to reduce their risk of being exposed to exploitative practices such as slavery or forced labour. It gives people the information they need to extract themselves from exploitative situations and puts employers on notice: shape up or pay out.

While it is important to draw a line between slavery and forced labour and lesser forms of exploitation, we should not ignore opportunities to give people who suffer lesser forms of exploitation the opportunity to exercise their legal rights under workplace and discrimination laws.

Human trafficking is an issue on which no country in the world can claim expertise. We are still learning from each other – observing the impact of new laws and policies in operation both here in Australia and overseas.  

We must continue to do this. We need to be responsive, flexible and learn from our own experiences and experiences abroad. This means looking at our existing laws and asking how they could work better –  do existing trafficking offences fully reflect the international definition? Do we need specific offences of forced labour and forced marriage?   How do we make sure cases of labour trafficking are identified?  What support, protection and information do trafficked people need? How can we make sure trafficked people get access to legal advice and their options for seeking compensation? 

Finding answers to these questions and continuing to improve our response to labour trafficking is a task which our speakers here today are uniquely qualified to do. I am looking forward to listening and learning and most importantly continuing to work with others to find solutions.  

The problem is complex but what is at stake is simple: people’s rights and people’s lives.

Join with me – for as yesterday’s reforms demonstrated – together we can create a different future for trafficked people and strengthen our law enforcement response in the process.




[1] United States Department of State, Trafficking in Persons Report, 2009, available online at http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2009/index.htm.



[2] Some details in this story have been changed to protect the identity of the man who was telling it. The case study is from the Anti-Slavery Project’s submission to the 2009 National Human Rights Consultation. This submission is available at http://www.antislavery.org.au/

[3] United Nations Declaration of Basic Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power.


[4] International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 2(3).

[5] For example in 2007 a restaurant owner was acquitted of trafficking a person for exploitation in his Indian restaurants in the Blue Mountains (see R v Yogalingham Rasalingham (2007) NSWDC). The then Office of Workplace Services separately brought a successful action against the restaurant owner and the company who owned the restaurant for failing to comply with the relevant workplace award. The Federal Magistrate ordered Yoga Tandoori Pty Ltd to pay $18,200 in penalties into Commonwealth revenue. See Fryer v Yoga Tandoori House Pty Ltd [2008] FMCA 288.