'Extremely traumatising': Modern slavery victims let down by police, courts

Australia's anti-slavery commissioner says victims are being let down by gaps in the justice system, with about 1 per cent of modern slavery reports resulting in convictions.

A new national report prepared for the office of the Australian anti-slavery commissioner found limited access to justice and accountability for victim-survivors, with most cases never leading to prosecution or conviction.

There were more than 3,000 reports of modern slavery and human trafficking made to the Australian Federal Police (AFP) over the last 20 years, according to the commissioner's office.

At the same time, there were just 41 convictions recorded between 2004 and 2025.

Experts believe the number of cases reported does not represent the full reality of modern slavery in Australia, given the crime is significantly under-identified.

Exploitative practices like human trafficking, slavery, servitude, forced labour, debt bondage and forced marriage are all considered modern slavery under Australian law.

Stakeholders interviewed for the report, prepared by the Australian Institute of Criminology, suggested investigators and prosecutors were too reliant on victim testimony rather than "following the money trail" or digital evidence.

Reporting barriers included low levels of community awareness, fear of deportation, trauma and limited access to compensation.

'Traumatising' navigating justice system, says victim

Emma, whose name has been changed for privacy reasons, previously experienced commercial sexual exploitation, domestic servitude and other forms of forced labour and abuse.

"The coercion became normalised really quickly — my finances, my relationships, my movements, my decisions," she said.

It was a "catastrophic incident" that led to investigations by police in her state.

The offender is now serving prison time for separate charges.

Emma, who is now rebuilding her sense of safety, felt let down by the wider justice system due to the failures of modern slavery identification by police and other frontline agencies.

She said she was not made aware by police at the time that her experience of abuse was actually a form of modern slavery.

"A lot of the individuals I came across throughout the process they genuinely cared about achieving accountability for the harm that was committed," she said.

"But my broader experience of navigating the justice system was extremely traumatising.

"There's a huge misalignment in so many of the systems about what modern slavery can look like in Australia."

The report drew on transcripts from 34 people with lived experience of modern slavery.

An unidentified victim-survivor told the report's researchers that when they made two calls to the AFP, they felt the frontline team was "not trained to take reports of modern slavery".

The AFP hold primary responsibility for investigating suspected modern slavery.

"They didn't really know what I was talking about. Then they forced me to the online form," the victim-survivor said.

"The web form wasn't that user-friendly … it's unrealistic to expect a victim to go online and do that … what if they have restricted internet access, or they have surveillance on them?"

Some other victim-survivors interviewed for the report said they had more positive experiences when reporting to AFP.

Another lived experience advocate said no one informed them they were eligible to access financial assistance through the victim support scheme.

Commissioner calls for change

The report called for police and prosecutors to critically assess the effectiveness of current systems.

Australian Anti-Slavery Commissioner, Chris Evans, said too many cases "fail to deliver accountability for offenders" and fail to support victim-survivors.

"Everyone in the system is trying to do their best, but it's just not working,"

he said.

"The cases taken to trial are just a small fraction of the number of offences occurring.

"Often we see people charged for lesser offences than what is clearly modern slavery because the prosecutors decide they're just not capable of getting a conviction on the stronger charges."

The federal government is preparing for its next national strategy to address modern slavery, with consultation to take place later this year.

The report also came following the announcement the United States was planning to impose a 12.5 per cent tariff on goods from Australia, alleging the country has failed to take action to prevent slavery and forced labour.

"What we want to do is get the focus on the victims," Mr Evans said.

"We've got to make sure their voices are heard, and that way we'll be much more likely to be able to devise systems that deliver results that all Australians would expect."

Emma hoped that, with systemic change, other victim-survivors would then be able to lean on the justice system to identity, and respond proactively to forms of modern slavery.

"Experiences like this change the way you move around the world. I still carry a lot of hyper-vigilance and fear," she said.

"I want to use my experience to help shift the conversation about exploitation. There are real people, real children, real families behind the statistics."