Action on people trafficking
People trafficking for the purposes of exploitation is a growing industry internationally, the UCA Synod meeting was told today.
Tess Keam of the Synod’s justice and international mission unit said that every country was involved, including Australia.
“Australia is a destination country, especially for women from South East Asia,” she said. “There is trafficking here both for sexual exploitation and for other forms of labour.
“This is a widespread issue requiring action from all levels of society, from governments, the grass roots, including the churches.”
Ms Keam was supporting a set of detailed resolutions which were all passed by consensus.
These include support for a three-pronged approach of:
(i) preventing trafficking,
(ii) prosecuting the traffickers, and
(iii) protecting the victims of trafficking.
The Synod meeting called on the Australian Government to fulfil its obligations under international protocols and United Nations conventions, including ensuring that the survivors of human trafficking in Australia have ready access to adequate crimes compensation.
The meeting resolved to write to the Prime Minister, the Attorney General, the Minister for Home Affairs, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Leader of the Opposition, the Shadow Attorney General and the Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs to inform them of these resolutions.
Reported by Alan Austin
