opinion
from the editor, Online Catholics, June 2006
The issue of trafficking of women has been in the news recently - in Victoria, with the guilty finding handed down by Judge McInerny to Wei Tang, ex-licensee of Club 417 in Brunswick Street; and a trial is currently underway in Sydney.
According to Sr Pauline Coll sgs, co-ordinator of the Sisters of the Good Samaritan Working Against Human Trafficking, five Thai women were kept as slaves in the Melbourne brothel and required to "service" up to 900 men each over a period of months to pay off "debts" of up to $45,000. These women earned nothing in cash during the period of their contract, while Wei Tang earned up to $43,000 per woman with each woman's "owner", including Tang, earning as much as $75,000.
The plight of these women was highlighted by Judge McInerney in his judgment, "How could they run away when they had no money, they had no passport or ticket, they entered on an illegally obtained visa... they had limited English language, they had no friends and were told to avoid immigration?"
Meanwhile, the Sydney Morning Herald is reporting this week on the case of a 19-year-old woman from Thailand who was put to work in a Sydney brothel but she was so unhappy that she asked clients to telephone the Immigration Department so she could be arrested and released from the alleged sexual servitude. One client did make the phone call and now a District Court hearing is underway before Judge James Bennett.
It is too easy to believe that trafficking exists only "overseas". It exists in almost all countries of the world, with more than one million people estimated to be trafficked into the sex industry, forced labour, domestic labour, for marriage or for body organs, each year. Clandestine in nature yet highly profitable, it is an evil in our own communities that must be publicly and prayerfully worked against.
Thursday next week (June 29) Sr Pauline and leaders of Australia's Religious congregations will stage a lunch-time rally in Victoria Square, Adelaide, in protest at trafficking's existence and in support of the work that is being done against this modern day slavery. The rally, from 12.30-1.30pm, will feature speakers Elizabeth Hoban and Jennifer Burn, both of whom work against trafficking at an international level.
Not only will the rally provide an opportunity for "Church" to be seen to be relevant in today's society - which means that a good show of numbers wouldn't go astray - it also provides an opportunity for the men of Adelaide to publicly support the women in a cause that is obviously dear to the women's hearts but one from which the men should not turn their backs. This is not just women's business.
On another front, at a date yet to be scheduled, SBS will screen Luigi Acquisto's evocative documentary, Trafficked. Worth keeping an eye out for, this powerful documentary follows Chris
Payne as he investigates the case of 'Nikkie', a 13-year-old Thai girl who was deported after she was discovered working in a Sydney brothel in 1995. Payne follows the trail of evidence from Australia to Thailand in search of 'Nikkie' and explores this modern slave trade and its impact on Nikkie's life.
The documentary also investigates the tragic case of another young Thai woman, Phuongtong Simpalee who was brought into Australia as a sex slave and subsequently died in an immigration detention centre in Sydney.
In the meantime, the Sisters of the Good Shepherd have set up an excellent website, Trafficking in Persons Clearinghouse, which aims to be a central access point for promoting conversations and increased awareness on trafficking by providing information on resources, projects and news and events as well as links to national and international websites. Another site worth the visit is Project Respect.
Nelson Mandela challenges us this week: Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure … Your playing small doesn't serve the world ...
As this coming week unfolds, may we all have the courage not to play small.
Blessings! Penny Edman
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