Australia police to workers: Be wary of exploitation
CANBERRA: Law enforcers in Australia on Sunday warned people seeking employment in the country of a growing number of workers being exploited or pushed into forced labor, saying they should guard themselves against such mistreatment.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) said there were 178 reports of forced labor or worker exploitation — which are forms of human trafficking — in the island continent in 2018 and 2019.
It identified acts of physical and psychological abuse, poor working conditions and debt bondage — in which a worker is led to believe he or she has a large debt to their employer and must work to pay it off — as indicating exploitation.
AFP Commander Helen Schneider said migrant workers looking for temporary work were particularly vulnerable on account of their visa status, cultural barriers, social isolation and limited understanding of Australian worker rights.
“Criminals may use deceptive methods to target vulnerable individuals looking for seasonal or temporary work in Australia before [pushing] them into forced labor,” she said in a statement.
Seasonal workers are widely tapped in Australia’s agriculture industry as fruit pickers and packers, farmhands and vineyard workers, she said.
In a recent investigation, the AFP charged a man alleged to have recruited workers via online advertisements and threatened to have them deported if they sought help from authorities.
In a separate case, a man was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison in January for forcing a person to work 14 hours, seven days a week, at his business for two straight years.