Sex slavery is one of the ugliest and cruellest aspects of migrant trafficking, a trade which booms as the gap between rich and poor widens and the walls go up around rich countries.
Trying to escape hardship for a new life, or to make money to send back to starving families, young women are lured to rich countries with the promise of jobs as housekeepers, waitresses and nannies. They pay thousands of dollars upfront, or make a downpayment and agree to pay off the rest over time.
An estimated one to two million women are lured to Europe, the US and Australia on false pretexts and bound to contracts which they are forced to pay off through prostitution.
Justice minister Senator Chris Ellison downplays the existence of a sex slave trade in Australia, a spokesperson for him stating that there is "little evidence" of it. Yet more than 600 women have been apprehended working illegally in brothels over the last three years.
The national sex worker organisation Scarlett Alliance is critical of the government's approach. They point out the incredible vulnerability of these women, exposed to violence, exploitation and forced to have unsafe sex.
"What's the alternative for them?", president Sarah Pinwill asks. "They still have a $30,000 debt hanging over their head when they get home or their family is targeted. They have no recourse to any form of justice, no way of leaving the operation. There is nowhere for them to go."
In 1999, federal legislation in Australia outlawed sex slavery and provided jail terms of up to 25 years for perpetrators. But this means little when immigration raids target and deport prostitutes, and not one prosecution has been mounted against their exploiters.
Even sections of the police force are frustrated by the attitude of the immigration department, who immediately deport the women back to their countries of origin, instead of investigating scheme organisers and offering women some safety and protection from them.
Compare this with the policy of the Italian government, where sex slavery is a problem on a much larger scale.
Immigration laws in Italy were recently revamped to enable the courts and police to give sex trade victims residency permits and protection. Testimony is only forthcoming once the women feel safe and, as a tribute to the government's approach, many women testifying against their pimps and owners.
At the same time, the Italian government has recognised and promoted nationwide welfare efforts for prostitutes, which include re-education and counselling programs.
Funding is given to local government to provide services, and a toll-free phone-in was established last year to invite foreign prostitutes to come forward. In the first two months, more than 40,000 calls were received, many from clients wanting to help their "favourites" escape the gangs.
As a result, almost 3000 out of an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 foreign prostitutes have been helped. A third of them are in the process of getting residency permits and 600 are in shelters.
Family reunion is also given priority — arrangements are made for children to be brought over from Eastern Europe or Russia to join their mothers.
The Australian government's approach of punishing the victims of poverty and sexual exploitation is in line with its punitive immigration policy as a whole — to blame and punish those who suffer most, and consequently further fuel the trade in human misery.
Residency rights for all women found working as sex slaves in Australia is essential. Automatic deportation puts women and their families at risk, due to bonds remaining unpaid, and is unacceptable.
But while poverty drives women to seek paid employment wherever they can find it, the sex slave trade will continue.
Rich countries and their governments create the basis for a slave trade — firstly by generating and maintaining global inequality, and secondly by closing their borders to all but a trickle of mostly skilled and wealthy migrants.
Only a redistribution of wealth on a global scale will put a permanent stop to this horrific example of sexual exploitation.
BY SARAH STEPHEN