Fence Of Human Trafficking - 811 Words

The offence of human trafficking encompasses multiple countries and by extension, multiple jurisdictions. To simplify, the issue can be trichotomised to ‘source countries’, ‘transit countries’ and ‘destination countries’. Australia, alongside with the rest of the developed world, is widely considered a destination country. A destination country, as inferred from the title, is one where those trafficked are most commonly sent to. Throughout the world, it is estimated the number of victims of human trafficking is estimated to be around 2.4 million, the vast majority sexually exploited or enslaved in forced work. Australia’s geography and relative isolation from the world has proved advantageous in the prevention of human trafficking,†¦show more content†¦The act also differentiates the crime of trafficking a child from an adult, with the maximum sentence for child trafficking 25 years imprisonment, as opposed to 12 years for an adult. A notable case in Australian legal history is R V Tang (2006), a case of sex trafficking where a brothel owner, Wei Tang, was charged pursuant to section 270.3(1) of the Commonwealth Criminal Code Act (1995) for five counts of intentionally possessing a slave and five counts of intentionally exercising a power of ownership over a slave. The women, trafficked from Thailand, were in debt to Tang to the amount of $45,000. It was agreed upon that the debt would reduce dependant on the number of customers were serviced . Although the arrangement was found to be voluntary, Tang was still found in violation of the act and sentenced to ten years imprisonment. Tang appealed this decision in both the Victorian Court of Appeals and the High Court of Australia. The High Court ruled 6-1 in favour of upholding the sentence. Tang later reapplied to the Court of Appeals and subsequently received a slightly reduced sentence. Article 4 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) states â€Å"No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.† Although the UDHR is not binding document, there are numerous international legal instruments