Reports of exploitation and possible forced labour of foreign workers have increasingly captured media headlines over the past year.
The Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) has stated that foreign workers now account for at least one-third of all their investigations and a range of inquiries at the Commonwealth and state levels have been conducted or announced.
Now, just this week, we have heard allegations of widespread fraud in Australia’s visa programs, involving, according to Fairfax, “some licensed migration agents and education providers, and a thriving cash-for-visa black market.”
Thus far, reporting has focused on border security and the anti-corruption framework, but has not delved into how corruption poses a serious threat to vulnerable workers and to the integrity of our industrial relations system and national anti-slavery framework.
While the coverage rightly highlights the vulnerability of some visa programs to rorting, we should not forget the human costs that are so often involved. These costs include protracted exploitation, and in some cases, forced labour of workers with limited or no alternatives for employment. These workers are bound to accept the terms of their employment or risk losing both their sponsorship and right to remain and work in Australia.
Migrant workers are particularly vulnerable to exploitation. They often lack support networks and connections, have limited understanding about the protections that exist in the Australian workplace relations system, or simply endure their conditions out of desperation for income.
While it is an important advancement that we are even having the conversation, it is unclear where it’s all leading. It seems that, despite increasing evidence, we still stand at the precipice; afraid to act or perhaps uncertain. Lingering questions about the validity of claims and the true extent of the problem are holding us back. And despite the best of intentions, policies and practices being introduced to reduce exploitative workplace conduct are falling short.
What is most concerning is the likelihood of an impulsive, reactive and incomplete response by some policy makers. Historically, we have seen an emphasis on penalties as the key means to address both exploitation and visa rorting.
There are two problems with this approach. First, it rests on the false assumption that penalties and compliance alone are effective deterrents but does not account for the reliance on worker complaints to discover unlawful conduct. If workers have no confidence in our system to uphold their rights, there is little incentive to report to and cooperate with the watchdogs.
It appears penalties only breed more penalties. For example, legislation passed late last year introduced new civil penalties for paying for or receiving money for a visa outcome. While this legislation is meant to reduce exploitation, there are existing penalties within the Migration Act to address the exploitation of sponsored workers that were not used in the last financial year.
Additionally, this legislation has no exemption for victims of deceptive recruiting, trafficking and other slavery-related offences, many of whom unwittingly accept deductions in wages as a condition of sponsorship. Penalties will only be effective if they are used and if workers have confidence in our system to uphold their rights.
The numbers of both victim identification and slavery-related prosecutions suggest that many victims are not being identified and supported to participate in a criminal justice proceeding that would likely be an effective deterrent. While prosecution is certainly not the only means to address modern slavery; it is the persistent impunity traffickers and slaveholders enjoy that prompts them to take the risk in the first place. Who cares about penalties if I know I won’t get caught?
What all of this illustrates is that the problem is extremely complex and cannot be fixed in one area of policy or through increased penalties alone. An effective response requires a multi-faceted approach that addresses the problems that occur where industrial relations, immigration, anti-slavery and, now, anti-corruption policy meet.
The ‘too hard basket’ is where complex issues like this usually end up. But for those of us who work with the very real victims of modern-day slavery, to ignore the problem is unacceptable.
, which runs the country’s only safe-house for victims of human trafficking, supports on average 30 victims of trafficking, slavery and slavery-like conditions every year. We work with partners like the (FECCA), to raise awareness and advocate for improved protections for individuals vulnerable to these crimes but too many Australians remain unaware that slavery exists here in their ‘lucky country’.
The continued preoccupation with asylum seekers has not only deterred our attention from structural problems in certain visa programs; it has also prevented us from engaging in a more substantive way with the issue of foreign worker exploitation and modern slavery.
These should be the election issues.
Heather Moore is the national policy and advocacy co-ordinator for the Freedom Partnership to End Modern Slavery.
She is also a guest on this week's episode of , looking at looking at the extent to which modern slavery, forced labour and exploitation exists in Australia | - Tuesday 26 July, 8:30pm SBS
