"I recently attended a briefing in NSW Parliament on human trafficking hosted by Ms Pru Goward MP, the former Commonwealth Sex Discrimination Commissioner." Pru has been involved with a not-for-profit community based organisation called Project Respect that aims to empower and support women in the sex industry, with a particular focus on women and girls trafficked to Australia. Project Respect's outreach work includes visiting brothels, providing accommodation, counselling, employment, and educational support to trafficked women.
There is currently no agreed estimate of trafficking for sexual servitude in Australia. The number of women trafficked to Australia for sexual servitude is difficult to estimate for three reasons. First, trafficking is illegal and therefore may occur undetected. Second, victims of trafficking may be unwilling to speak about being trafficked because they fear retribution from traffickers or are traumatised by the experience. Third, there has been a lack of cooperation with agencies that may know of trafficked women to calculate the number of such women in Australia.
One of the biggest groups of women trafficked into Australia are Thai. Many are deceived into thinking they are coming to work in Australia within the travel or restaurant industries. Once in Australia, the nightmare begins, told that they owe a huge debt which they have to "pay off" by being a sex slave. They may be subjected to violence, threats and at times kept hostage. Project Respect estimates that there are up to 1,000 women in Australia under contract at any one time. This does not include women who have paid off their 'debt' but remain in Australia.
One way Project Respect aims to support victims of trafficking is to provide training and employment within a community enterprise project. Project Respect's current vision is to open a Thai Noodle Bar in Melbourne to serve and assist women who have been victims of trafficking into Australia. This is a community response offering long-term sustainable employment for former trafficked women. Their aim is to raise $200,000 to establish a Thai Noodle Bar and the money raised will help:
- Employ and support women who have been trafficked into Australia for prostitution.
- Retrain trafficked women and provide them with business skills.
- Establish a Thai take-away Noodle Bar with equipment, stock and cover rental fees.
Families have lost their daughters, mothers and wives to human trafficking and sexual servitude. One victim of trafficking is one too many.
On the web:
www.projectrespect.org.au
Source: Rev Dr Gordon Moyes NSW Member of Parliament
Society
Project Respect Seeks to Help Trafficked Women and Girls
Wednesday, 4 February 2009, 10:08 (EST)
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