"The real risks of exploitation for Pacific workers in Australia,"

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To flag exploitation risks is not to say that these programs must be abolished. Rather, it is to highlight the inherent vulnerabilities that temporary migrant workers face in low-wage sectors such as agriculture and meat processing, which cause some to become trapped in exploitative situations. We can improve, by getting the visa and protection settings right – I argue, by giving migrant workers exit options, voice and a social safety net...

As a country, Australia may not acknowledge that it relies on low-wage migrants, but our economy couldn’t run without them... Yet whether we talk of the heavily-regulated PALM scheme or the lightly-regulated Working Holiday Maker Program, we see that workers are sometimes subject to sexual harassment and gender-based violence, dangerous working conditions, racism and medical risks such as pregnancies without medical care... However, where issues occur, they are not isolated incidents but part of a broader pattern of vulnerability which, when exploited, can give rise to forced labour, deceptive recruiting, debt bondage and in some cases even sexual servitude and labour trafficking...

In Australia, migrant workers’ voice has been given an enormous boost through the introduction of the workplace justice visa and protection against visa cancellation. But exit – for PALM workers – is tied up in bureaucracy, consigning many of them to up to four years with an employer unless they can prove exploitation. In this respect, one “solution” to increasing protection of Pacific workers is clear: make it easier to change employers (exit) and ensure that workers can more easily report exploitation to organisations they trust, including unions and migrant workers centres such as that in Victoria and soon NSW (voice)... However, the onus should not solely be on workers – a stronger co-regulatory approach with better proactive detection and investigation by federal, State and local authorities is needed, involving police, healthcare workers, and community service providers...