By Caroline Smith
A recent seminar in Perth, entitled Is She Safe?, which looked at the topic of human trafficking, brought together experts and interested parties to discuss the current situation, as well as examining potential responses and solutions through the witness of people working on such programs in Cambodia, the Philippines and Myanmar.
The event, which was organised by Catholic Mission Perth Office and Australian Catholic Religious Against Trafficking (ACRATH), was held on 29 June and attracted more than 130 participants, including a strong inter-denominational contingent of student leaders and community groups.
Emcee Sophie Stewart, from Young Christian Students (YCS), led attendees in group discussion and interaction with a panel of five experts who each spoke about their experiences working in the field.
These included Professor Jennifer Burn from Anti-Slavery Australia; Professor Marietta Latonio, from the University of Southern Philippines; Andrea Creado, from Ishar Multicultural Women’s Health Centre; Hang Sreyputh, from Education in Small Villages Project Cambodia; and Jacinta Cardozo, of Pinya Sanyae Institute of Education in Myanmar.
Professor Burn, who lectures in trafficking law at the University of Technology in Sydney, said trafficking was a complex issue which should nevertheless be challenged as a serious threat to human rights here and in other countries.
“When we think about this issue globally, the statistics are staggering,” she said.
“The United Nations reports that 21 million people are moved around for forced labour and, of that number, 11.4 million are women and girls.
“The exact number of people trafficked to Australia each year is not known but, between 2004 and 2015, the Australian Federal Police received 619 referrals for human trafficking, and there’s been a steady increase in the number of referrals.”
Professor Burn said poverty, lack of opportunity and education, and social issues such as family and gender-based violence, made people vulnerable to being trafficked, adding that stronger laws and an addressing of these problems could help combat the crime itself.
“When we think about ways to address human trafficking, it’s clear that we need stronger legal protections, and the structure of the law needs to change,” she said.
“We also need to empower people at risk, so that they become less vulnerable.”
Since trafficking and exploitation were often tied up with manufacturing and clothing industries in developing countries, people in the West could also challenge the system by checking where their consumer products came from, Professor Burn said.
“We need to look at why many of our clothes and other goods are made in South East Asia, in Bangladesh or Thailand,” she said.
“This is for a very simple reason: because it is easier and cheaper for companies to buy goods if they are being made in developing countries.
“But cheap labour can come at a serious cost for workers: low wages mean that there may be few safety regulations for workers in the country; there may be few workplace laws, so exploiters can benefit.”
By becoming more aware of these issues, consumers could make better choices and thus boost ‘ethical supply chains’ to challenge exploitative employers and those implicated in human trafficking.
Professor Marietta Latonio, who works with anti-trafficking agency, Good Shepherd Mission in Cebu City, said socioeconomic factors such as poverty and lack of education were key to understanding how young women often got caught up in human trafficking and sexual exploitation.
“Human trafficking is not a random act of victimisation; it compiles underlying vulnerabilities which make it so easy for human traffickers to lure these young women,” she said.
“Inequality was already there in the womb of their mums: they were not given proper food, and they grew up with minimum education.”
Professor Latonio’s research into the issue, with Australian Sister Angela Reed RSM, has produced the book, I Have a Voice, which recounts the experiences of 40 women from Cebu Province who have survived this trafficking. It is available in PDF form from http://www.ourcommunity.com.au/ihaveavoice.
A follow-up seminar, The Courage of Our Convictions, will be held on the evening of 11 October (International Girl-Child Day) at St Thomas More College in Crawley. More information can be obtained by contacting Catholic Mission on 08 9422 7933, or by emailing director.cm@perthcatholic.org.au.