Australia’s border control and anti-trafficking interventions disproportionately impact the human rights of Asian migrant sex workers. Raids on sex industry workplaces are often framed as efforts to detect and deter exploitation and trafficking, but instead result in targeting Asian migrant sex workers for visa checks, visa cancellations, detention and deportation.

Raids are not an appropriate mechanism to address worker exploitation. Raids negatively impact peer support, safety and the health and wellbeing of sex workers. Current practices do not support Asian migrant sex workers to address work health and safety issues, or other workplace issues, and sex workers identified as working without a valid work visa are not afforded appropriate support.