The International Legal Framework Relating to Human Smuggling and Trafficking For the Purpose of Sex Exploitation and Slavery
Hossein Esmaeili
School of Law, University of New England
and
Aileen Kennedy
School of Law, University of New England
ABSTRACT
Each year thousands of people are being trafficked through and out of South East Asia. Australia is a popular destination for people smugglers. A number of people have been brought to Australia by organised people-smugglers to work in the Australian sex industry. Many of these sex workers lose their passports and documents while working in Australia. They are treated like slaves and become virtual prisoners. They are usually placed under threat of jail and deportation. The majority of these workers come from South East Asian countries such as Thailand, Philippines, Burma, Cambodia and Indonesia.
The issue of the sex trade and people smuggling for the purpose of sexual slavery by organised criminals and people traffickers is the subject of both international and domestic legal systems.
There are a large number of international treaties which contain provisions applicable to human smuggling and sex slavery.
This paper reviews and examines the existing international law framework in relation to human trafficking for the purpose of sex exploitation and slavery. In particular it analyses the provisions of the 2000 United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its Protocol on Trafficking of the UN Convention on Transnational Organised Crime.
The paper also investigates and analyses the relevant existing provisions in Australian law relating to combating sex trafficking and the slave trade.
The paper explores the emerging framework of both international law and Australian law relating to transnational crimes which involve people smuggling, and related cross border law enforcement issues.