Scarlet Alliance, Australian Sex Workers Association believes the criminal justice approach must be partnered with equally strong measures targeted towards prevention, education and support for migrant sex workers who are at risk of, or who have experienced trafficking-like work conditions, slavery and slavery-like offences. Police presence in sex worker workplaces has the effect of pushing migrant sex work underground and making trafficking and slavery-like situations more possible, not less likely. Our state and territory based member sex worker organisations and projects conduct regular and extensive outreach to wherever sex workers work, and are the key mechanism to provide education, address the drivers of trafficking and modern slavery, identify instances of trafficking, slavery and slavery-like offences when they occur in the sex industry, and to provide practical and informed support to, and referrals for migrant sex workers who are at risk of or who have experienced trafficking, slavery and slavery-like practices.

We believe that expanding the current criminal justice approach will not advance the rights of victims/survivors of trafficking, slavery and slavery-like practices. Experience tells us that broadening the scope of these laws will not result in better outcomes, but will result in over-capture, and increase police and immigration surveillance, harassment, arrest and deportation of migrant sex workers.

At consultation meetings for this review, AFP officers described police ‘disruption’ of migrant sex worker workplaces as a ‘successful’ method of preventing trafficking or slavery-like crimes. Scarlet Alliance and our members can confirm that migrant sex workers report these actions negatively as police ‘raids’ or ‘undercover stings’, while the same actions are referred to by police as ‘visits’ or ‘disruptions’. Media report these police actions as benevolent efforts to ‘identify and support trafficking victims’. In practice the workplaces of Asian migrant sex workers who are not experiencing trafficking or slavery-like conditions are being targeted for raids by police, and those migrant sex workers are being harassed and deported. Also of note is the low number of prosecutions, not on par with the high number of reported police ‘visits’ to migrant sex worker workplaces.

Despite compelling evidence of its limitations and potential harms, Australia’s approach to trafficking, slavery and slavery-like offences remains largely centred in a reactive criminal-justice response, with a focus on policing and surveillance. The implementation of this criminal justice framework has come at enormous cost, with little evidence as to its effectiveness.