By Brittney Hodnik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania
CANBERRA, Australia – Authorities in Australia report that legal migration attempts are turning into sex trafficking, specifically in Sydney and Melbourne. Today, the Sydney Morning Herald linked two migration agents to aiding in illegal sex slavery. Most typically, the women come from Asia or Eastern Europe and are often looking for visas to migrate legally to Australia; before they know it, they are pushed into a world of human trafficking and illegal brothels.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Xu Xu Li and Yasmin Bao are under investigation for their role in the illicit sex trade. Both women are licensed migration agents from Sydney and Melbourne, respectively. They supposedly arrange student visas for women seeking them before forcing them to work as sex slaves. Li denies her involvement with the whole thing, stating that she never met or communicated directly with the victims, but rather all contact was made through “people in the middle,” she told the Sydney Morning Herald.
Authorities have linked two brothels in Sydney and Melbourne to international human traffickers, according to Voice of America News (“VOA News”). Reportedly, the gangs lure Asian women most frequently to Australia by promising a college education. Instead, women are forced to have sex with men to repay their airfare and accommodation debts to the traffickers.
Because brothels are legal in some parts of Australia, the state has been slow to act. Women are not being protected from illegal sex trafficking because of some of the leniency toward legal brothels and prostitution. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, crime within the sex industry has not been deterred whatsoever by the regulation.
Project Respect works to help women in the sex industry, both those who have been forced into the industry and those who have not; it has found that abhorrent violations of human rights continue.
Sex trafficking is a very difficult crime to get accurate estimates for. VOA News reports that the authorities have far underestimated the amount of trafficking cases in Australia. Worldwide, sex trafficking is a multi-billion dollar business.
Christine Sykes, the chief executive of the Migration Agents Registration Authority told the Sydney Morning Herald “no agents in the past 10 years had been sanctioned over allegation of sex slavery or trafficking.”
Home Affairs Minister, Brendan O’Connor told MSN that Australia will continue its investigation into these two migration agents and other illegal sex trafficking. “The law enforcement agencies in this country work closely and have to continue to work ever more closely,” he told MSN.
For more information, please visit:
The Sydney Morning Herald — Visa to Vice: Migration Agents Linked to Sex Workers — 12 Oct. 2011
MSN — Sex Slaves a Long-Term Investigation — 11 Oct. 2011
The Sydney Morning Herald — Sex Slavery Even in Licensed Brothels — 11 Oct. 2011
Voice of America — Sex, Human Trafficking Thriving in Australia — 10 Oct. 2011
