Project Respect estimates that around 1,000 women in Australia are trafficked for prostitution every year and under contract at any one time and still paying off a debt. Realistically, the number could be far greater as we do not know how many women are still in Australia but have left the situation of exploitation, or how many women are trafficked for other purposes, including marriage and labour exploitation.

There are various methods of trafficking women for sexual exploitation. Traffickers in the country of destination may operate organised chains, recruiting women in source countries then prostituting them into their own brothels in Australia. Other traffickers form only a part of that chain and may recruit women, bring them to Australia and then sell them to another trafficker, possibly as a ‘pre order’ arrangement. Traffickers may view the women before deciding to buy them, rather like a sale at a cattle auction. Other traffickers operate networks of women in different locations around Australia and internationally, while “Mum and Dad” traffickers may have a half share in a woman.

It's difficult for Project Respect to have a realistic estimate of the number of women trafficked for prostitution in Australia, for a number of reasons. Many traffickers and their victims go unreported and undetected. Many victims of trafficking just aren't willing to speak about their experiences, fearing retribution from traffickers, or understandably are too traumatised by the experience. Previous negative experiences with the Department of Immigration or the Australian Federal Police may have left these women with the impression that no one can help them. There is no central body with the mandate to gather statistics on trafficking, and apart from Project Respect’s 2004 research, there is no publicly available research on the scope of trafficking in Australia.

[Why Australia?]