But what else can the government do? In May 2005, another leading counter-trafficking advocate, lawyer Georgina Costello, did a study comparing trafficking laws and policies in Bangkok, London, parts of Italy, Washington DC, and New York City. She then made a tick list of “best practices” and recommended that Australia adopt similar measures:

• The numero verde telephone hotline in Italy
• The Article 18 visa and victim support legislation in Italy and the T visa in the US
• The outreach work of the Italian ngo, On the Road
• The community response to trafficking (crt) program in New York City
• Government funding for the work of victim support agencies in both Italy and the US
• The successful people trafficking prosecutions which have taken place in both countries
• A criminal law against trafficking framed in terms very similar to the definition of trafficking in the United Nations Trafficking Protocol

Broadly speaking, Australia has caught up with many of these. Where it falls short is in the level of communication between the ngos and law enforcement, the number of convictions handed to traffickers, and the more flexible conditions around the Italian visa for trafficked victims.

And unlike Italy and the US’ trafficking hotline, the phone number on educational brochures released early this year contained a general number of the AFP without options for other languages at the start of the phone call. The only redeeming feature of these released brochures is that they are printed in six languages, including Tagalog.

In short, the Australian government has certainly transformed itself since 1999 to catch traffickers and help trafficking victims. But the combination of a better visa regime, a stronger relationship with ngos, and a more aggressive public awareness campaign can all go a long way to reduce, if not eliminate, the problem.

The Catholic community is another major force in monitoring any human rights violations. Sister Joan McKenna is a volunteer at the Good Shepherd, a group of sisters who have strongly campaigned against modern-day slavery alongside the ngos. She says that “I suppose we can get rid of trafficking in this country because it is still smallish. I really believe if we hit it hard enough now, we can get it less whereas in other countries, I don’t know where you’d start.”

But if it took the death of Simaplee in 2001 to mobilize the public and the government, would it also take the death of someone in the Filipino community due to labor trafficking before it’s taken more seriously?

According to Corpuz-Brock, several of the six Filipina women who became sex slaves did contemplate suicide when they were forced by their mama-san to take drugs. Of the 14 nurses, two have managed to find new employers but the rest are still working for the same agency and are extremely depressed about their situation.

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