Human Trafficking in AUSTRALIA

Just in case you thought Australia was a nation exempt from the evils of human trafficking - think again. Here is one excerpt from an information piece on trafficking in Australia (read much more at: http://www.catwinternational.org/factbook/aus.php)

PROSTITUTION
Prostitution grosses A$30 million annually. (Federal Police estimates, CATW - Asia Pacific, Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific)

There are 3,000 children, some younger than 10, in the Australian sex industry, which includes brothels, escort work, street prostitution, pornography, sex for favors and stripping. (EPCAT report, Agence France-Presse, 13 April 1998)

59 of 2,992 prostitutes studied for a report conducted by EPCAT were between 10 and 12 years old. 15 were under 10 years old. Two-thirds were girls. (EPCAT report, Agence France-Presse, 13 April 1998)

Child prostitution in Australia was studied by ECPAT, which collected information from early 471 government and non-government agencies working with children. The study, the first of its kind, revealed a vicious cycle leading to child commercial sexual activities. Links were found between young people being sold and youth homelessness, dysfunctional family backgrounds and lack of self-esteem. The government and public should act immediately to provide housing, income security, education and advice to young people. Children are also sold to sex tourists. Parents have been found to sell their own children.


More than 1200 Victorian children are involved in prostitution - the highest rate in the nation.
320 Queensland children were involved in child prostitution.
More than 3100 Australian children aged 12-18 sold sex to survive.
Children younger than 10 were involved in organized pedophile rings.

Child pornography was not limited to the inner cities but was increasing in rural and regional areas.

The main reasons children were sold for sex were for accommodation, food, alcohol, clothes and drugs. (Sarah Hudson, "Child sex soaring," Herald Sun, 30 September 1998) and ("Children, 10, swapping sex for groceries, drugs," Courier Mail, 30 September 1998)