Slavery still occuring

AS THE worker described conditions at a work site in southern Queensland he might have been speaking from Charles Dickens’ England.

Employees regularly physically and verbally abused.

Little support offered to those suffering workplace injuries and underpayment commonplace.

The worker begged me not to speak to any authorities.

His visa status along with that of his workmates relied upon compliance with no hint of complaints.

This was not Dickens’ England but Queensland in 2017.

Slavery is a word that often takes us to a bygone era.

It conjures up images of the deep south of the United States or the West Indies where people were forcibly taken from Africa and bought and sold like cattle.

In the state of Queensland the north was not immune to its own form of slavery in the 19th century.

If you visit the city of Townsville you can go to the spot where Pacific Islanders or Kanakas were bought and sold as part of establishing the sugar industry in this land.

And so it may come as a surprise to learn that legislation will go before the Australian Federal Parliament this year addressing the scourge of modern slavery.

In the hurly burly of the Budget last week 3.6 million dollars was committed to establish an Anti-Slavery Business Engagement Unit in the Department of Home Affairs.

Part of the strategy will see some of Australia’s largest corporations and other entities publish annual public statements on their actions to address modern slavery in their supply chains and operations.

This push has been led by West Australian mining magnate Twiggy Forrest.

Locally St Vincent’s Private Hospital is already on board.

Last year St Vincent’s Health Australia (of which our St Vincent’s Hospital is a part) launched the Human Trafficking Project.

This project looks at how trafficked people receive health care in Australia.

This includes women who have been sexually exploited, people facing forced marriage and people who have experienced forced labour.

The project also looks at how to make sure the goods and services procured by St Vincent’s are slavery-free.

This means investigating supply chains to make sure a diverse range of goods – everything from medical equipment through to cotton sheets and gowns, and chocolates sold for hospital fundraising – have been produced without the use of enslaved or forced labour.

Forced labour and human trafficking is a $150 billion industry worldwide that impacts a disproportionate number of women and children. Human trafficking and modern slavery is happening in Australia too!

It is critical that we raise people’s awareness about these crimes so that we are able to advocate on behalf of victims and support those who are impacted by these crimes. Awarenessraising, education and advocacy are keys to helping unlock the invisible shackles of modern slavery.

Human trafficking (a term encompassing all forms of modern slavery) is a sinister crime with its sole purpose being the exploitation of people.

The ILO (International Labour Organisation 2017) estimates that there are 40.3 million victims of human trafficking across the world. 81 per cent are trapped in forced labour.

The remaining 19 per cent are trapped in sex trafficking, labour exploitation, domestic servitude, organ trafficking, and forced marriage.

‘‘ IT IS CRITICAL THAT WE RAISE PEOPLE’S AWARENESS ABOUT THESE CRIMES.