Joint Media Release
13 October 2003
Minister for Justice and Customs, Senator The Hon Chris Ellison - Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, Senator The Hon Amanda Vanstone - Minister for Foreign Affairs, The Hon Alexander Downer MP - Attorney-General, The Hon Phillip Ruddock MP - Minister Assisting the PM for the Status Of Women, Senator The Hon Kay Patterson
Australian Government announces major package to combat people trafficking
The Australian Government has shown its commitment to combating the repugnant trade of trafficking in people by allocating more than $20 million over four years for a major package of measures to combat this growing form of transnational organised crime.
The new measures will significantly enhance the detection, investigation and prosecution of traffickers, improve the range of support available to victims and help prevent trafficking of persons. They will complement existing efforts, including Australian Government aid program activities valued at around $14 million.
This package is a strong, well-considered and determined response to people trafficking and sexual exploitation and builds on Australia's effective approach to fighting this crime.
One victim of trafficking is one too many. While Australia has a range of practical and legal measures already in place to combat trafficking, these new measures emphasise the Government's commitment to combating trafficking in persons by focusing on prevention, detection, prosecutions, supporting victims and international efforts.
A Commonwealth Action Plan to Eradicate Trafficking in Persons will be developed to co-ordinate these new initiatives.
This Action Plan will complement existing measures by providing additional initiatives. These are:
- A new community awareness campaign to raise awareness of trafficking issues within Australia;
- A new 23-member Australian Federal Police (AFP) mobile strike team (the Transnational Sexual Exploitation and Trafficking Team) to investigate trafficking and sexual servitude;
- A new Senior Migration Officer (Compliance) in Thailand, focused on trafficking in persons;
- Closer links between the AFP and Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA) officers in the detection and investigation of trafficking and enhanced training on trafficking issues;
- New visa arrangements for potentially trafficked persons;
- Comprehensive victim support measures provided through contracted case managers, including appropriate accommodation and living expenses and access for victims to a wide range of social support, legal, medical and counselling services;
- Enhancement of arrangements, including access to additional support, for the small number of potential victims who may be required to remain in immigration detention;
- Development of a reintegration assistance project for trafficking victims who are returned to key source countries in South East Asia;
- Improvements to legislation to comprehensively criminalise trafficking activity;
- Legislative amendments to make telecommunications interception available for investigating trafficking offences, and
- Ratification, once all domestic requirements are in place, of the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children.
The existing networks developed by the Bali Regional Ministerial Conferences on People Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons and Related Transnational Crime, and the Ambassador for People Smuggling Issues, will be used to pursue enhanced region-wide cooperation to combat trafficking in persons.
Media inquiries:
Simon Troeth (Sen. Ellison's office) (02) 6277 7260 - Chris Kenny (Mr Downer's office) (02) 6277 7500 - Damon Hunt (Sen. Vanstone's office) (02) 6277 7560 - Sarah Higginbottom (Sen. Patterson's office) (02) 6277 7220 - Steve Ingram (Mr Ruddock's office) (02) 6277 7300
NOTE: People trafficking involves people being smuggled into a country like a commodity, sometimes for the purposes of sexual exploitation, whilst people smuggling involves the seeking of a migration outcome where someone is paid to smuggle an individual across the border.