Every day, sex workers travel to and from so-called Australia to explore, study, work, and spend time with friends and family. Migration laws and policy shape sex worker safety. Visa restrictions, border enforcement and workplace raids don't stop exploitation, they create the conditions for it. These approaches push migrant sex workers away from support, services and legal protection. Asian Migrant Sex Workers show up for each other to maintain safety, combat stigma and racism, and maintain a strong community.
Raids are not a solution to exploitation. They cause the harms that they claim to prevent by pushing sex workers toward isolation, mistrust of authorities, and greater risk.
Between November 2022 and December 2024 Australian Border Force (ABF) officers conducted 180 ‘field activities’ (raids) on sex work workplaces. Fewer than five people were referred to Australia’s Support for Trafficked People Program as a result.
Between June 2025 and July 2026, ABF officers conducted 103 raids on sex worker workplaces, finding just ten people who had overstayed their visa.
This briefing paper and media release examine the impact of migration policies, policing and border enforcement on migrant sex workers in Australia.
Learn how workplace raids, visa restrictions and discriminatory policies undermine the safety, rights and working conditions of migrant sex workers, and why we continue to advocate for rights-based approaches that prioritise the voices and experiences of migrant sex workers themselves.
Many migrant sex workers, particularly those from Asia, face significant barriers when navigating Australia’s visa system. Limited access to information in their own languages about visa conditions and work rights can leave migrant sex workers reliant on third-party migration brokers, increasing their vulnerability to misinformation, legal risks and financial insecurity.
PUBLISHED APRIL 2026
ADVOCACY RESOURCE
This resource examines the harmful impacts of Australian Border Force raids on Asian migrant sex workers, including increased vulnerability to exploitation, barriers to accessing healthcare and peer support, and the erosion of workplace rights.
WORLD CONGRESS OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR PROSTITUTES’ RIGHTS, 1986, PUBLISHED IN ‘A VINDICATION OF THE RIGHTS OF WHORES’, PHETERSON, G (ED.), 1989
Racist policing, workplace raids and discriminatory migration policies put migrant sex workers’ rights, safety and livelihoods at risk. Explore our posts unpacking the harms of immigration enforcement, the intersecting impacts of racism and criminalisation, and why we’re calling for an end to targeted raids, stronger protections and migrant justice.
Racist policing, workplace raids and discriminatory migration policies put migrant sex workers’ rights, safety and livelihoods at risk. Explore our posts unpacking the harms of immigration enforcement, the intersecting impacts of racism and criminalisation, and why we’re calling for an end to targeted raids, stronger protections and migrant justice.
While the ‘White Australia’ policy officially ended decades ago, its logic continues to shape migration law and policy.
In November 2022, the ABF launched Operation Inglenook, a multi-agency operation framed as targeting trafficking and modern slavery in the sex industry. As part of Operation Inglenook, Australian Border Force (ABF) officers conducted 180 ‘field activities’ (raids) against sex work workplaces. Fewer than five people were referred to Australia’s Support for Trafficked People Program as a result.
Operation Inglenook formally ended on 31 December 2024 without ever establishing that sex work workplaces have levels of worker exploitation warranting targeted enforcement. Raids nonetheless continued, now under Operation Greentale, launched 1 July 2024, which targets immigration compliance and worker exploitation across industries including sex work. ABF continues to describe this enforcement as exploitation-focused, despite Inglenook’s own findings giving them no basis to treat sex work as a high-exploitation industry.
Help us put an end to racist immigration raids targeting migrant sex workers.
Scarlet Alliance is calling for an end to immigration raids targeting Asian migrant sex workers and their workplaces. Learn more about our campaign and how you can contact the Minister for Home Affairs to raise concerns about the impact of these raids on migrant sex workers’ rights and safety.
Explore more of our research, submissions and advocacy on migrant sex workers’ rights, immigration enforcement, workplace exploitation and the impacts of migration and anti-trafficking policies on sex workers and our communities.
In late 2022, sensationalist media claims linking sex work to trafficking prompted the Australian Government to launch Operation Inglenook, a Border Force operation aimed at identifying visa exploitation and trafficking in the sex industry. In practice, the operation led to workplace raids, racial and gender profiling at the border, and the detention and deportation of Asian migrant sex workers, with little evidence of the exploitation it claimed to target. When Inglenook “ended” in December 2024, it was superseded by Operation Greentale, and the raids and their harms have continued. This timeline documents these events alongside the ongoing advocacy of Scarlet Alliance, Asian migrant sex workers and our allies to defend sex workers’ rights, safety and dignity.
Sex workers respond to ‘exploitation’ allegations by Major Organised Crime Squad and sensationalist media: “No evidence was presented to justify the assertion that these workplaces were sites of exploitation. Weak links were made to persons in other states who have been previously charged for organised crime in the UK. Respect Inc are extremely concerned about the conflation of sex work and trafficking.”
The stated goal is to identify “exploitation of Australia’s temporary visa program” and “victims of trafficking or modern slavery practices within the sex industry”.
Former Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police Christine Nixon appointed to lead a rapid review into the exploitation of Australia’s visa system to “address migrant worker exploitation, and aim to more effectively prevent, deter and sanction abuse of Australia's visa framework.”
“The documentary suggests tighter regulation of the sex industry, that there are people who should be banned from running a sex industry business (but not banned from running other businesses that employ people) are based on a misguided assumption that sex workers are somehow inherently more vulnerable than other workers, rather than looking at the legislative frameworks, policies and pervasive stigma and discrimination that denies sex workers and migrants access to full legal, industrial and health rights.” Stan’s Revealed: Trafficked exposes Nick McKenzie’s white knight fantasy based on racist stereotyping.
The leaked Nixon Review is published online by Nine Entertainment.
Scarlet Alliance writes to Commonwealth Cabinet members urging them to reject the proposed ban on temporary migrants in Australia working in sex work.
On 22 August 2023, a sex worker delegation, including members of the Asian Migrant Sex Worker Advisory Group, meet with the Hon Claire O’Niel, then Minister for Home Affairs.
Briefing: Operation Inglenook circulated widely to Members of Parliament, Minister’s offices and relevant Government departments.
The Australian Government response rejects recommendations that would ban temporary migrant sex workers.
Scarlet Alliance and SWOP NT formally request Home Affairs release the guidelines or related documents that are informing Border Force raids and conduct, for the purpose of assisting sex worker peer educators to do their job. Home Affairs receives the request, tells us they cannot complete this request and the request will be handled by Border Force instead.
The protesters demand an end to the workplace raids and an end to the profiling of Asian migrant sex workers at the border.
During September 2024, two raids on Asian migrant sex worker workplaces were reported to the Victorian sex worker peer organisation, Vixen.
ACTU Congress notes “most migrants who experience exploitation do not come forward because they fear they will jeopardise their visa in Australia… Border Force raids under Operation Inglenook are targeting sex workers and negatively impacting peer support and WHS in the workplace.”
Scarlet Alliance, AMSWAG and more than forty other community groups launch an email campaign against Inglenook transphobic and racist profiling at the border leading to unfair detention, including of Asian migrant sex workers.
“Operation Inglenook conducted by the ABF … allegedly targeted [young Asian women] for detention, interrogation and deportation at the ports of entry with the justification of prevention of sexual exploitation.” says Professor Tomoya Obokata (17-27 November 2024).
Operation Inglenook allegedly ends, having refused 208 people immigration clearance, conducted 180 ‘field’ activities (i.e. brothel raids) including warrant executions, resulting in 19 persons being detained, 15 of these were ‘removed’ from Australia, 11 had had their visa cancelled, half were under 30 years of age, half were Indonesian nationals, six were Chinese, and more than half were women. Superseded by Operation Greentale. During December 2024 and January 2025, at least two more raids on Asian migrant sex worker workplaces were reported to the Victorian sex worker peer organisation, Vixen.
ABF detains trans woman and cancels her visa over an old email linked to sex work. “After 12 hours in custody, officers told her she would stay in a hotel before being removed and flown back home. Instead, they transferred her to Villawood Immigration Detention Centre and placed her in a men’s compound”.
Up to eight Border Force officers, armed and in uniform, carry out three raids on sex worker workplaces in Naarm, Victoria. They entered work rooms during bookings, questioning workers without language support or interpreters. Scarlet Alliance and Vixen requested Border Force to review their use of raids because they are undermining rights and safety. The correspondence asks for safeguards to prevent gender and racial profiling.
Sex workers and supporters protest in Docklands, Victoria, demanding an end to the raids and chanting “No Cops, No Border Force in our workplaces.”
Border Force correspondence explains their officers act professionally and lawfully, only carry weapons for safety. The operations are described as transparent and it is asserted that workers are permitted to get dressed prior to interview.
Sex workers are separated and questioned without interpreters, and asked to sign documents they do not understand. Questions by ABF personnel are reportedly intrusive, stigmatising, and migrant sex workers fear that the information collected will be used against them in the future, impacting upon future migration and work opportunities. One migrant sex worker reports that “lawful migrants, residents and citizens are caught up in these actions, traumatised, standing in the workplace in lingerie for two hours or more, sometimes partially naked while questioned, not permitted to use their phone or have a friend with them while Border Force isolate them into different rooms on the premises.” In response Scarlet Alliance calls on the government to “Establish meaningful, regular and genuine communication pathways with the Department of Home Affairs in matters pertaining to racial profiling at the border, visa cancellation of Asian migrant sex workers, decisions to detain and deport, and other related policies.”
Noticeably raids have now included workplaces not exclusive to migrant workers, however on entry Border Force observed only approaching people of colour or speaking English as a second language. Border Force told receptionists “If you do not check every worker on VIVO, and you still allow them to work, we will fine you.” “A lot of workers have a fake visa.” Scarlet Alliance, SWOPNT, Vixen and AMSWAG meet with Border Force to discuss the impact of Border Force conduct in sex worker workplaces. The sex worker organisations are informed that to obtain operational guidelines used for field operations an FOI request must be submitted.
A second meeting is pursued with Border Force, this time to discuss Border Force officer tactics and targeting at airports that result in the profiling, detaining and deportation of our members. While broadly supporting reforms to strengthen the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth), a Scarlet Alliance submission urges a refocus from visa compliance to detecting genuine cases of forced labor, human trafficking and exploitation.
Department of Home Affairs corresponds to Scarlet Alliance, advising sex worker organisations to engage directly with Border Force, and not with the Department, about operational matters. Scarlet Alliance submits to the Australian Human Rights Commission concerns about immigration detainees facing elevated physical/sexual violence, mental health neglect, unsafe housing, and severe trauma. The submission asserts that Border Force targeting and detention under Inglenook/Greentale is creating a breach of international human rights treaties (ICCPR, CAT, ICESCR) and causing prolonged distress among sex worker detainees. "Protective" segregation is resulting in detention of individuals separately from others for up to 23 hours daily—equating to torture under UN standards.
Scarlet Alliance tables first hand accounts from Asian migrant sex workers, managers, and peer educators during 2025 Border Force raids on workplaces to the Settlement Council of Australia Conference and National Roundtable on Human Trafficking and Slavery. The sex worker organisation systematically contrasts ABF's public policy claims with on-the-ground evidence, photographic records, and CCTV footage to document non-consensual entries, rights violations, and industry-specific discrimination.
The Migration Project commenced in May 2026 for resource development that strengthens peer support and advocacy for Asian migrant sex workers across Australia. Key priorities involve creating transparent governance, diverse representation, and increasing opportunities for migrant sex workers to influence project priorities in the industry through accountable and lived experience-led participation.
In a submission to CEVAW Feminist Inquiry into Violence Against Sex Workers in Australia and Thailand, Scarlet Alliance focused on border and immigration enforcement targeting Asian migrant sex workers and the harms of raids.
