At ACRATH, we work hard to bring about a greater awareness on the reality of Human Trafficking…

The Sydney Morning Herald
Louise Hall
December 18, 2010

A HUSBAND and wife who kept five Thai women as sex slaves in a Fairfield brothel have been jailed for at least seven years.

Trevor McIvor, 63, and his Thai-born wife, Kanokporn Tanuchit, 42, ”traded in human misery and poverty” and their punishment would serve as a warning to others in the ”morally reprehensible” sex slave trade, the judge, Johnathan Williams, said.

The pair, who have two young children, were the first people in NSW to be convicted under sexual servitude laws in 2008.

The conviction was quashed on appeal, but in a retrial earlier this year they were found guilty of five counts of possessing a slave and five counts of using a slave. read more..

In November 2010, 15 women religious and colleagues undertook an ACRATH networking and policy development week in Canberra. Read more in the Visual report (.pdf 920KB)

Marie Claire
Dan MacDonald
December 8, 2010

When a young Chinese woman in Melbourne received compensation as a victim of sex slavery, her case was hailed a victory – yet it was just the second of its kind. Why?

For Qi*, every day was the same. Sitting hunched on a bed in a dark, dingy brothel, she’d wait for the creak of the old wooden stairs that heralded the arrival of another client. Exhausted from lack of sleep and nauseous from the musty stench of damp carpet and the prospect of the hours that stretched ahead, she’d barely flinch when the telltale creak finally came. Forced to submit to a long line of men no matter how drunk, drugged, putrid-smelling or violent, and forbidden to refuse a client, her only freedom was that she could insist they wear a condom.

Trapped by a “debt bond”, her family under threat if she tried to escape, one extraordinary element separated Qi’s story from that of most sex slaves: it was taking place in Melbourne. read more..

ACRATH (Australian Catholic Religious Against Trafficking in Humans) has been granted $350,000 funding for the next three years to contnue the fght against human trafcking. The Federal Government has announced that ACRATH is one of four non-government organisatons funded, along with Project Respect (Melbourne), Ant-Slavery Project (Sydney) and ScarlettAlliance (Sydney). ACRATH natonal chair Sr Louise Cleary said the organisaton was delighted with the grant as the money would help keep ACRATH viable over the coming three years.

“We are conscious, though, that the grant will cover only part of our costs as the work of ACRATH has grown and ACRATH is now working in four states,” Sr Louise said.

The announcement was made at the Government’s recent National Roundtable on Trafficking in Canberra attended by Sr Louise and Victorian ACRATH chair Sr Carol Hogan. The National Roundtable coincided with a 15 strong delegation of ACRATH members in Canberra. The group had 68 meetings with MPs, Embassy and Union officials and policy makers to discuss trafficking in Australia and globally. Sr Louise said the visit to Canberra had been very encouraging as MPs expressed interest in ACRATH’s work against human trafficking, which is recognised as a transnational problem that needs to be fought on many levels.  read more..