{"id":1118,"date":"2009-09-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-09-25T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bahai.org.au\/index.php\/news\/slavery-active-in-australia-legal-expert\/"},"modified":"2017-10-14T04:47:19","modified_gmt":"2017-10-14T04:47:19","slug":"slavery-active-in-australia-legal-expert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bahai.org.au\/index.php\/slavery-active-in-australia-legal-expert\/","title":{"rendered":"'Slavery active in Australia': Legal expert"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Slavery
Pam Stewart (left) with Arini Beaumaris, national secretary for the Australian Baha’i Community, in the grounds of the Baha’i House of Worship<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Australia has become a destination country for people traffickers who are the modern-day version of slave traders, according to Pam Stewart, a senior law lecturer from the University of Technology, Sydney.<\/p>\n

Ms Stewart is a member of the Anti-Slavery Project, which was established at the university in 2003. The project provides direct assistance to victims of enslavement and human trafficking as well as advocating legal and policy reform.<\/p>\n

People trafficking is a human rights issue, said Ms Stewart, who was speaking at a reception held at the Bah\u00e1\u2019\u00ed National Centre on 20 September to mark the International Day of Peace.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is about human rights abuses happening in Australia today,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

People trafficked to Australia are forced to work by their slave-owner\/employer, often in the sex industry or as forced labourers, Ms Stewart said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are commodified, dehumanised, imprisoned, and denied their own identity by having their documents taken away,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ms Stewart said that people traffickers rely on their victims\u2019 fear of authorities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are frightened – frightened of being sent back, frightened of giving evidence, frightened for their welfare of their families at home,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople need to know what their rights are. In many cases, they don\u2019t even know they have rights,\u201d Ms Stewart said.<\/p>\n

Lucrative<\/strong><\/p>\n

People trafficking is one of the world\u2019s most lucrative crimes, Ms Stewart said.<\/p>\n

It is estimated that traffickers have reaped some $42.5 billion a year worldwide in the past decade, she said.<\/p>\n

Although the exact scale of the problem in Australia is unknown, the Australian Federal Police has undertaken more than 270 investigations of trafficking related offences since 2004, leading to 34 people being charged and nine convictions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese cases are only the tip of the iceberg,\u201d Ms Stewart said.<\/p>\n

Ms Stewart praised the Federal government for introducing laws that criminalise slavery, sexual servitude, trafficking and debt bondage.<\/p>\n

She said that the Australian Federal Police has a taskforce to combat people trafficking.<\/p>\n

A Commonwealth Victim Support Program for trafficked persons has provided support to 107 people, nearly all of them women, since 2004, she said.<\/p>\n

Special visa arrangements have also been put in place for trafficking victims.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are achieving things but there\u2019s plenty more to do,\u201d Ms Stewart said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australia has become a destination country for people traffickers who are the modern-day version of slave traders, according to Pam Stewart, a senior law lecturer from the University of Technology, Sydney.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-releases","category-uncategorised"],"yoast_head":"\n&apos;Slavery active in Australia&apos;: Legal expert - Australian Baha'i Community<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bahai.org.au\/index.php\/slavery-active-in-australia-legal-expert\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"&apos;Slavery active in Australia&apos;: Legal expert - 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