WUNRN
Sydney Morning Herald
AUSTRALIA - ASIAN WOMEN LURED WITH
STUDENT VISAS & FORCED INTO SEX SLAVERY
Asian women are being
snared in a student visa scam that funnels them into Sydney brothels where they
are forced to sell sex and drugs for up to 20 hours a day.
A Sun-Herald
investigation has found that after arriving in Australia on travel visas,
dozens of women from Hong Kong and Thailand are being met by brothel managers
who lodge study visa applications on their behalf. While most submissions fail,
appeals are routinely lodged in the knowledge the process takes up to two
years.
During that time, the
women are at the mercy of traffickers who restrict their freedom and force them
to work around the clock as prostitutes. While some are aware they are arriving
to work in the sex industry, many are oblivious to the fact. Sources on the
periphery of the sex ring have testified that within months, an increasing
number of workers are finding themselves broken, battered and hooked on crystal
meth (ice), which, in some parlours, they are obliged to offer to clients.
Despite detailed evidence
having been lodged with the Department of Immigration more than a year ago,
nothing has been done to close the visa loophole on which the scam thrives.
While Blacktown police received a detailed tip-off about the drug epidemic
inside two local brothels The Sun-Herald has recent audio recordings
in which clients are still able to book girls who smoke ice as part of the
service.
Commander of the NSW
Police Sex Crimes squad, Detective Superintendent John Kerlatec, said: ''These
are serious crimes and we work closely with our federal counterparts to ensure
we tackle them not only in Australia, but offshore. The difficulty is in trying
to get victimised witnesses to come forward.''
In February last year,
consultancy firm Brothel Busters contacted two senior officials within
Immigration's national investigation unit, identifying four Hong Kong women who
were delivered to Australia to work in the sex industry. The girls were
dispersed between two brothels in Blacktown and an associated parlour in
Sydney's south. Brothel Busters head Chris Seage also provided a paper trail
that demonstrated exactly how sex traffickers were utilising the student visa
system. Three months later, a regular client of the Blacktown parlours became
irate about prolific drug use on premises and turned whistleblower. In a
letter, dated May 19, 2013, to Blacktown Council mayor Len Robinson, he stated:
''These working girls hardly speak a word of English … are here on a student
visa and are permitted limited hours per week to work (20 hours) but are forced
to work up to 18 hours a day.
''The brothel supplies,
and the girls offer ice and ecstasy to their clients to make them stay longer.''
The customer even went as
far as identifying three sex workers from whom ice and other drugs could be
freely obtained, adding: ''These are not allegations but facts.''
Five days later, Mr
Robinson wrote back stating ''regular inspections'' were ''routinely
conducted'' by council inspectors. He added that because drug supply was a
criminal matter ''beyond council's legislative authority to enforce'', the
complaint had been sent to the ''superintendent'' of Blacktown police local
area command.
Police responded with
visits and referrals to federal authorities. However, two of the three women
identified by the whistleblower are still rostered on.
In 2012-13, 3446 appeals
against refusals were lodged from 290,761 student visa applications submitted
over the same period. A spokesman for Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said
the ''vast majority'' of student visa applications were approved. ''Overhauling
the student visa system would not prevent unscrupulous individuals from seeking
to use this or other visa programs to profit from trafficking or
trafficking-like activities,'' he said.
Allegations of sexual
exploitation through student visas stretch back to at least February 2012, when
the Australian Federal Police arrested the Chinese-Cambodian owner of the Diamonds
4 Ever brothel in Guildford.
Song Ea, 42, faces two
charges of organising entry reckless as to exploitation, two counts of
employing a non-citizen to work in breach of visa condition and conducting
business involving sexual servitude. He is due to appear before Sydney District
Court.