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The Federal Government's internet-based holiday visa scheme is being used by human traffickers to bring women into Australia as sex workers, an audit report has found. Since July 2002, travellers have been able to apply for the Working Holiday Maker (WHM) visa online. About 98 per cent of the 100,000 working holiday visas granted each year are applied for this way. An audit by the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) found the system was being used by people traffickers to get women to work in Australia as sex slaves. "Concern over sex workers in Australia on WHM visas has arisen within DIMA (the Department of Immigration) repeatedly over recent years,'' the ANAO said. "Concern arises if there is evidence of sexual slavery or people trafficking. "DIMA compliance officers have come across instances where they concluded that trafficking was occurring,'' it said. According to departmental emails in August 2003, DIMA began to suspect an organised racket after a South Korean sex worker's WHM visa was cancelled. "Certain DIMA officers suspected that this may have been organised behaviour, extending rather widely, and formed a view that there is an increasing propensity to use the visa sub-class 417 (WHM) to bring sex workers into Australia,'' the ANAO reported. Between March 2004 and February 2006, 38 South Korean sex workers with WHM visas were found to be working illegally in Australia. But 222 South Koreans on WHMs were working legally in the sex industry in 2004/05. In the previous year, 63 South Koreans were working lawfully on the visas. The ANAO said the trend was on the rise. "Over the previous two financial years there is evidence of a growing trend to use the WHM visa for Koreans working in the sex industry,'' it said. An internal departmental report in late 2003 found the WHM visa was the "latest visa of choice for Korean nationals working in the sex and entertainment industry''. In May 2004, DIMA compliance officers discovered four cases in Melbourne that led them to believe South Korean women on WHM visas were trafficked to Australia to work in the sex industry. A department initiative that year to stop temporary residents from working in the sex industry was abandoned because prostitution in brothels in most of Australia was legal. In April 2005 two South Koreans applying for the working holiday visas were discovered to have substituted their x-rays because the originals showed they had tuberculosis. This led DIMA's Seoul office to suspect a link to an organised racket trading in sex workers using the WHM visa. The ANAO said the department worked with the Australian Federal Police to refer information about people trafficking for investigation. Overall, the ANAO found the online visa application system for working holidays operated well. "The e-WHM mechanism implemented by DIMA provides a robust, effective mechanism for handling WHM visas in an environment where the number of applications continues to rise,'' it said. It made just four recommendations for improvement. Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone welcomed the ANAO's findings. "Australia is the only country to have developed an electronic lodgment facility for visa applicants, which allows significant amounts of processing to be automated, leading to better access and faster, more reliable decisions,'' she said. AAP (17-10-2006) Saffron Howden |
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