The purpose of this research project was to identify barriers that have arisen in relation to detecting victims of trafficking, and investigating and prosecuting traffickers. To inform this research, interviews were conducted with various people around Australia who have had firsthand experience in detecting trafficking cases, or in conducting trafficking investigations and prosecutions. This included:
- representatives from NGOs that work with workers and operators in the sex industry, and those who work more specifically on the issue of trafficking
- representatives from Commonwealth Government agencies with an operational role in detecting, investigating and prosecuting trafficking cases (DIAC, AFP, OfW, CDPP)
- caseworkers from the Commonwealth-funded victim support program
- state police in those jurisdictions where trafficking situations were known to have been detected (Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland).
Approximately 28 interviews and two focus group discussions were conducted with 49 people from at least 15 organisations. A list of interviews conducted is in Appendix A. More informal discussions were also held with several people. For example, some preliminary discussions were held over the telephone, or the subject of an interview informally introduced the researchers to other people working in the organisation. These informal discussions are not reflected in the list of interviews.
While interviews were conducted with reference to a question guide, most tended to be free-flowing discussions rather than tightly controlled question-and-answer sessions. As a result, some of the discussions were broad-ranging, and several participants volunteered information about issues that have arisen in the response to trafficking that may not strictly be considered as barriers to identifying victims, or to investigating and prosecuting traffickers. This information is included in the report where it is relevant to the issues of victim detection, investigations and prosecutions.
Most of the information contained in this report is drawn from these interviews. Where information is drawn from supplementary sources, this is specified.