‘Modern Slavery’ is used to describe all human trafficking, slavery and slavery-like offences in Divisions 270 and 271 of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth) (Criminal Code). These offences include trafficking in persons, slavery, and servitude, forced labour, deceptive recruiting for labour or services, debt bondage, and forced marriage. Modern slavery is also used to describe the worst forms of child labour, including the commercial sexual exploitation of children and the exploitation of children for illegal activities such as drug trafficking.

Every person has the right to be free from slavery. This is enshrined in international law, which recognises freedom from slavery as a fundamental right that applies without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Nevertheless, modern slavery practices persist and are serious crimes and grave violations of human rights.

An estimated 40.3 million men, women, and children were victims of modern slavery on any given day in 2016. Of these, 24.9 million people were in forced labour and 15.4 million were in forced marriage.

Women and girls are vastly over-represented, making up 71 per cent of victims. Modern slavery is most prevalent in Africa, followed by Asia and the Pacific region.¹

¹Australian Border Force Website – Addressing Modern Slavery in Government Supply Chains and e-learning modules modernslaveryregister.gov.au