Federal Government Grants for Five Organisation

A Federal Government Media Release dated Monday 17th October announced that the Gillard Government has allocated a total of $485,000 to five organisation to fund projects aimed at combating slavery and human trafficking in Australia.  A copy of the media release issued by the Hon Brendan O’Connor MP, Minister for Home Affairs and Justice, and the Hon Kate Ellis MP, Minister for the Status of Women, may be found here.

Australian Media Reports on Sex Trafficking

Beginning with a report on Four Corners on Monday 11th October there have been a number of articles on sex slavery in the Australian media recently.  Links to some of these articles are given below.

Flesh Trade – Commissioner Chris McDevitt, media.smh.com.au 6th October 2011

Sex traffickers exploiting women, and law, as state fails to act, Sydney Morning Herald 11 October 2011

Minister’s response to Four Corners sex trafficking revalations, ABC Radio National, 11 October 2011

Migration agents suspected over sex slavery,  The Age, 12 October 2011

It’s time to get serious about sex trafficking in Australia, Sydney Morning Herald, 13 October 2011

Slavery in Australia, Migration Amendments, ABC News Breakfast, 17 October 2011

Canberra slams lack of action on brothels, The Age 18 October 2011

Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in the Solomon Islands

The commercial sexual exploitation of children, or sexual abuse in exchange for money or goods, in a remote region of the Solomon Islands, with a focus on the presence of the logging industry and the role this industry plays in abusing and exploiting children is reported in a document prepared by Tania Herbert of the Christian Care Centre, Church of Melanesia, Solomon Islands.  Read more…

Solwodi Newsletter No 89 September 2011

The latest edition of the Solwodi Newsletter (Solidarity with Women in Distress) may be read by clicking here.

Senators Speaks on Human Trafficking

On 13th September 2011 Senator Helen Polley spoke to the Australian Senate saying “human trafficking is a significant global problem.” She commented that “victims of human trafficking have been discovered in domestic servitude, forced agricultural labour, garment manufacturing, the fishing industry, construction and sex work.”  Read more…

Senator Claire Moore was granted leave to speak for twenty minutes on Tuesday 20th September 2011.  She mentioned the recent visit of ACRATH members to Parliament House and spoke strongly about the need for government and individuals to be aware of and take action about child slavery in the chocolate industry.  Read more…

Minister Visits ACRATH Office

Minister for Home Affairs and Justice, Brendan O’Connor, and Member for Melbourne Ports, Michael Danby, visited the office of ACRATH (Australian Catholic Religious Against the Trafficking of Humans) in Albert Park, Victoria on Wednesday 5 October 2011.  Their visit was the formal acknowledgement that the Government has committed $350,000 over the next three years to ACRATH to support its work in anti-trafficking.  Also present at the meeting were advisers to the MPs and ACRATH personnel Louise Cleary csb (Chairperson), Carol Hogan sss (National Secretary), Christine Carolan (Program Coordinator), Shane Wood cfc (Volunteer), Jeffrey Dalton (Volunteer), Denise Mulcahy fcj (Voluntary Worker).

‘Slavery and human trafficking are a fundamental debasement of humanity.  The Government is committed to working in partnership with community organisations to address the full cycle of these crimes,’ Mr O’Connor said.

‘ACRATH is working towards the elimination of people trafficking in Australia, the Pacific and internationally.  This grant will help ACRATH’s work to raise community awareness, share information and build networks nationally and globally.’  ACRATH also helps provide direct services to people trafficked into Australia.  ‘NGOs such as ACRATH are invaluable resources for trafficked people, providing much-needed outreach, support services and advocacy,’ Mr Danby said.

Over the next three years, ACRATH will concentrate on community awareness and education initiatives focusing on labour exploitation.  ACRATH was also a recipient of a 2008 round of funding aimed at supporting a range of anti-trafficking initiatives.

Working with International Partners to Prevent Human Trafficking

A document recently released in the UK entitled Human Trafficking:  the Government’s Strategy sets out a renewed focus on preventing human trafficking overseas before the harm can reach the UK while maintaining and improving care arrangements for adult victims at home.  The Home Secretary, Theresa May, said that working closely with international partners is important especially in the lead up to the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Read more…

President of  UN General Assembly on Tackling Human Trafficking

General Assembly President, Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, has called for redoubled efforts to tackle human trafficking which the United Nations anti-crime agency says is a multi-billion dollar industry and one that enslaves some 2.4 million people at any given time, many of whom are children.  Read more…
(Photo courtesy of UN News Centre)

Children Taken From School to Work in Cotton Fields

Despite efforts to conceal systematic breaches of national and international bans on child labour, the use of minors in Uzbekistan’s cotton industry continues to be well-documented.

This September, three years after the government formally outlawed child labour, saw the usual annual exodus of school children as well as university students to pick the cotton harvest.

Human rights groups say children in the seventh to ninth grades of school were sent out to the fields en masse from September 10.  Read more…

(Photo taken from Institute for War and Peace Reporting website)

Anti-Human Trafficking Newsletter Vol 9 No 9.

The September 2011 issue highlights campaigns that address various aspects of human trafficking and suggests ways of becoming involved in the fight against this modern day form of human slavery.

Click here to read this issue.