Human trafficking cases have doubled in the past five years in Australia with more than two forced marriages now reported every week, but police say it’s just the “tip of the iceberg”.
New Australian Federal Police figures reveal that reports of “exit trafficking” – where victims taken out of Australia – more than doubled to 75 over the past financial year, while overall human trafficking reports hit 420 in 2024-25, up from 224 in 2020/21.
There were also 118 reports of forced marriage (up from 91), 84 reports of sexual servitude (up from 59), 36 reports of child trafficking (up from 35), 22 reports of domestic servitude (up from 21), 12 reports of slavery (up from less than five), among other reports for other offences.
The spike in exit trafficking comes after a Pakistani man was arrested in Sydney earlier this year after allegedly tricking his wife and Australian-born child into travelling back to Pakistan and stranding them there.
In November last year African man Mohamed Ahmed Omer was jailed for four years and six months in Victoria for stranding his foreign national wife in Sudan and trying to cancel her visa after returning with their two children.
In 2021 an Indian man was the first person in Australia to be convicted of an exit trafficking offence, and was jailed for 21-months for forcing a woman and her child to return to India on a one-way flight. She was threatened with murder if she did not comply.
And last year burqa-clad Afghan refugee mother Sakina Muhammad Jan, who forced her 20-year-old daughter Ruqia Haidari to marry Muslim Mohammad Ali Halimi, who then slashed her throat with a kitchen knife, was jailed for three years in Victoria.
AFP Commander Helen Schneider said the increase in reports was just the “tip of the iceberg” but said the increase in reports could indicate that police engagement with “at-risk community groups” were working.
“More than 90 per cent of exit trafficking victims are female, which tells us that women are more vulnerable to this type of exploitation, which occurs when coercion, threats or deception are used to exit, or attempt to exit, an individual from Australia,” she said.
“The AFP takes a victim-centric approach to human trafficking investigations, and every report is dealt with carefully and with the victim’s interests and needs front of mind.
“If prosecution is not suitable, our investigators look for opportunities to prevent and disrupt human trafficking offences, as well as educating the community.”
Header image: Left, Ruqia Haidari (Supplied). Right, an Indian family being forced to fly out of Sydney airport (AFP).
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