Sex slave evidence covered-up

by Elisabeth Wynhausen, Michael McKinnon and Natalie O'Brien
The Australian, May 15, 2003

THE Howard Government has covered up evidence from its own officials about the widespread trafficking of women for prostitution.

Documents obtained by The Australian under freedom of information laws reveal the Government has known for more than a year about the involvement of organised crime in the trafficking and exploitation of women imported to Australia.

But the Immigration Department shelved the reports from the taskforce it had set up to investigate trafficking, then denied there was a significant problem.

When John Moorhouse, Immigration's first assistant secretary of border control and compliance was asked in a Senate committee hearing last February if there were women who had been trafficked to Australia, he said "that is not something that we normally encounter".

"We certainly would not ignore any indications of trafficking whatsoever," Mr Moorhouse told Democrats senator Lyn Allison.

But only two months earlier, the departmental task force had reported that while most of the women coming to Australia to work as prostitutes came willingly, "there are indications in NSW that traffickers operate within the sex industry".

"Traffickers may confiscate the individual's passport, prevent their movement and coerce them to engage in prostitution using unsafe sex practices," the report says.

Circulated to the uppermost echelon of the department and the office of Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock, the reports say there are suggestions that "women enter into debt arrangements as they are unable to obtain visas themselves to legally work in Australia and are unfamiliar with the language".

"In some instances these women entering into debt bondage arrangements or contracts find themselves the victims of sexual servitude."

An investigation by The Australian has exposed the extent of trafficking in Australia. It now seems the Government knew about it all along.

The taskforce was set up after compliance and investigations teams within the department found evidence of "organised criminal activity including: document fraud, sexual servitude, migration agent malpractice (and) people trafficking".

Asked if the minister had seen the resulting reports, a spokesman for Mr Ruddock said: "I don't know if he would have personally seen it.

"What it does indicate is that there has been activity by the department for quite some time.

"The taskforce, in essence, has done its job."