What is Human Trafficking?

Rani- FORCED MARRIAGE:

Rani is a 17-year old girl from a high school in Melbourne. When her parents said they were taking her overseas to marry a man she had never met, she thought she had no option but to comply. But after hearing an ACRATH person speak at her school, she learnt about her legal right to choose her own husband and to avoid a forced marriage. Thousands of students around Australia have heard presentations by ACRATH members, including information on forced marriage.

These presentations are underpinned by 2013 legislation which criminalised forced marriage in Australia. The law states Rani has the right to choose if, whom and when she will marry. Armed with this information, and support from her school, Rani was able to negotiate with her parents so she could stay at school and complete her secondary education.

ACRATH, along with many other organisations, advocated for five years to have forced marriage outlawed. The advocacy involved annual trips to Canberra to meet politicians and the development of resources for schools, celebrants and priests and community organisations.

According to the Government’s Australian Institute of Health and Welfare forced marriage has been the most reported form of modern slavery to the Australian Federal Police in every year since 2015–16, with 90 reports in 2022–23. In 2020–21, of the 79 reports of forced marriage, about half (51%) involved people under the age of 18 and 70% related to marriage overseas. In response to almost 50% of the reports, disruption or intervention strategies were used that stopped the offence from occurring. In January 2024, the AFP – as part of its focus on disrupting human trafficking across Australia – called on school communities to learn the signs of forced marriage as students prepared to return to the classroom this year.

AFP Commander Human Exploitation Helen Schneider said the AFP looked for any opportunity to disrupt and prevent human trafficking offences. “By educating the community of the prevalence of forced marriage and building awareness – particularly for those involved in school communities – we hope more people are empowered to seek help and report their experiences or suspicions to the AFP,” she said.

“Those closely involved with school-aged children are often best placed to identify the warning signs and indicators of human trafficking.”

Fatima – FORCED LABOUR

Fatima was a housekeeper at a consulate in Sydney. She received no wages from her employer and was enslaved in the consulate for months. Through social media she managed to contact a police officer who helped her flee her captors in the middle of the night. Fatima was then supported by a community refugee organisation that, recognising she had been forced into labour, asked ACRATH to get involved. We provided immediate support to Fatima helping her buy clothes and other essentials. ACRATH also linked Fatima with a law firm who has done pro-bono work for victim/survivors.

Importantly, Fatima became a part of the ACRATH Companionship Program and was supported by a Companion on and off for many years. The Companion offered friendship and helped Fatima navigate housing and health issues. She eventually studied at TAFE and has slowly rebuilt her life.

ACRATH’s Companionship Program began in 2008 when the Australian Federal Police asked ACRATH if someone could offer personal support for a woman living in Melbourne who had been trafficked; the AFP were concerned for her wellbeing. In the past 16 years, the Companionship Program has proven to be a vital aspect of ACRATH’s broader work.

Today, ACRATH’s trained and supervised volunteer Companions offer support and friendship to many trafficked women and their children who face the long journey of healing. ACRATH also reaches out to seasonal workers from Timor Leste and the Pacific.

In Australia, According to the Government’s Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, cases of forced labour occur in similar sectors to those identified worldwide, including domestic work, the sex industry, agriculture and construction. Many of these industries rely on migrant workers who enter Australia on temporary visas and are particularly at risk of exploitation in forced labour.

HAN – FORCED LABOUR

Han worked on a government department building site in Canberra for many months. He was employed by a contractor who disappeared with the wages owed to Han and his co-workers. ACRATH was contacted by a community organisation about the wage theft and met with officials from the CFMEU Construction Union in Canberra to see what could be done for Han. The workers joined the union, which then took on their case and managed to retrieve the wages in full.

ACRATH works with unions and civil society to achieve just outcomes for exploited workers. An important landmark in recent years (2021) was the success of a four-year battle for justice for 22 men from Vanuatu, who were exploited on farms in Australia when they came to work as part of the Seasonal Worker Program.

Judge Jarrett in the Brisbane federal circuit court in his 2017 judgement called the treatment of these workers on farms in Australia 'egregious'. As a result of the multiple representations over several years, the Australian government agreed to offer the people exploited in Australia an Act of Grace; this was in recognition of the fact their wages and airfares were stolen from them by a labour hire company while they were on the Seasonal Worker Program, a program which forms part of Australian aid to the Pacific.  One requirement for the Act of Grace is that it needs to address a mistake in an Australian government program.

The years of advocacy involved a partnership with Allens, an international law firm, civil society colleagues, and at least 38 people in Parliament and departmental roles. It brought the men the money they were owed, acknowledging stolen wages and airfares, but it has had two other significant effects. It has built ACRATH’s credibility in standing with the disempowered and staying the course, and it has raised the issue repeatedly that forced labour needs to be addressed in the employment of seasonal migrant workers vulnerable to exploitation.

Lin - EXIT TRAFFICKING

ACRATH spoke to a group of priests in Western Australia about forced marriage and other modern slavery issues. After the presentation a priest raised the alarm about a man, he knew of, who had travelled to an East African country and returned to Australia without Lin, his teenage child. The priest was concerned that there seemed to be little explanation of the child’s whereabouts and no mention of her return. He inquired after her and was told she was a very ‘difficult’ teenager.

ACRATH, with support from the priest, contacted Australian Federal Police who began investigating the case. Exit trafficking is a crime in Australia.

In 2022–23 there were 30 reports of exit trafficking (a person coercing, forcing or threatening another to leave Australia against their will). The AFP secured its first exit trafficking conviction in 2021, charging a Sydney man who used threats, coercion, and deception to force a woman and her child to return to India. The man was jailed for 21 months.