#7: Big announcements in the fight to end modern slavery and OSEC

Australia’s Federal #Budget2023, delivered earlier this month, was good news for anti-slavery advocates as well as child protection advocates. As per calls from IJM and other organisations, the #Albanese Government committed $8 million towards establishing a federal Anti-Slavery Commissioner – a huge win as we all seek to end #modernslavery.

Also winning is the eSafety Commissioner , which will receive over $33 million extra per year in addition to the office’s baseline funding of $11 million. Julie Inman - Grant and her team have been proactive in addressing online sexual exploitation of children (#OSEC) and we look forward to seeing how they will use these extra dollars to move the dial on Australia’s response to this fast-growing, heinous abuse.

Given rapid growth in #scamming affecting Australians, it’s not surprising to see this Budget allocate significant funds to counter this crime. Among other line items is $58 million to establish a National Anti-Scam Centre under the ACCC . Given the role of forced criminality in scamming (workers trafficked and forced to work in scam centres in Southeast Asia), Australia’s approach must include not only a national but a regional response to the issue. We hope to see some of those Budget funds used to stop this form of slavery at its source.

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Modern slavery

·????????Over the weekend, Australia’s Prime Minister and the US President met to discuss their alliance and a Joint Council to fight OSEC was singled out in their joint statement

·???????? Walk Free published its Global Slavery Estimates yesterday (24 May). Points of note include almost 60% of all people in slavery globally being in the #AsiaPacific region, and Australian ranking joint second best in government responses to modern slavery. See our media release.

·????????IKEA in Malaysia cuts ties with security services supplier over labor policy breach.

·???????? Deutsche Welle ’s report on human trafficking to scam centres in Southeast Asia provides a solid overview of the issue.

·???????? Andrey Sawchenko , IJM’s Vice President of Forced Labour Slavery Programs, Asia Pacific, was on a podcast about what corporates can do to address modern slavery.

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Online Sexual Exploitation of Children

·????????A NSW man has been sentenced to 16 years’ imprisonment for livestreaming the sexual exploitation of at least 13 children in the Philippines (trigger warning applies to this article).

·???????? The Verge has provided a helpful explainer on the UK’s long-awaited Online Safety Bill (any time now!).

·???????? Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) ’s new report indicates severe child sexual abuse material online has more than doubled since 2020 - a very concerning?statistic. It describes a cumulative 4% increase in CSAM online between 2021 and 2022, with more "Category A" abuse, the most severe type as defined by the IWF, than ever before. Read the full report here.

·????????In other research, the Australian Institute of Criminology has published The overlap between child sexual abuse live streaming, contact abuse and other forms of child exploitation

·????????A confronting expose in The Guardian about how Facebook and Meta have becoming “marketplaces” for child sex offenders.?

Quote of the month

"People get trafficked not because they are vulnerable, but because there are traffickers." – Mina Chiang , Humanity Research Consultancy .

We would add “There are traffickers because anti-trafficking laws aren’t well enforced.”

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Because we're all short on time and there is a lot happening in the anti-slavery space, we're breaking things down into the choicest, bite-size pieces.

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