No sympathy should be wasted on these people; they are illegal entrants to Australia who are rewarded with a visa if they are caught. Portraying them as victims just doesn’t wash.

It would seem that there will always be a class of students of dubious merit are forever going to be telling women what they can and cannot do with their bodies.

When comparing Helen Pringle's article with that of Elena Jeffreys, I must say the latter displays better rational and empirical judgement.

Jeffreys states that: "If the Federal Government wants to improve the conditions of migrant sex workers, it needs to protect their rights as workers.... The health, safety and human rights of the migrant sex workers in Australia must be prioritised" and because she's more acutely aware of the issues, she's come to right conclusion. Her claims concur with the briefing paper of the Australian government (http://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/CIB/2002-03/03cib28.htm)

Pringle on the other hand glorifies the miserable failure of Swedish model of prostitution, a model which is condemned by sex workers themselves and by a government report of the Netherlands.

http://www.regjeringen.no/upload/kilde/jd/rap/2004/0034/ddd/pdfv/232216-purchasing_sexual_services_in_sweden_and_the_nederlands.pdf
http://sensuellqkonsult.wordpress.com/2007/05/26/lies-about-sexwork-in-sweden/
http://www.petraostergren.com/content/blogcategory/20/38/
http://www.bayswan.org/swed/rosswed.html
http://www.bayswan.org/swed/swed_europap.html
http://www.bayswan.org/swed/nordicpros.html
http://www.bayswan.org/swed/livjessen.html

I am also flabbergasted that Ms. Pringle seems to imply that Jeffreys is "viciously defamatory" because the latter recognises that "abduction, fraud, deception" etc are acts of force. I am interested in what Ms. Pringle thinks that such things are, if not force.

Finally, I note the terrible misuse of Mill and Kant. Even as a first-year student in political theory I did not ham-fisted as this. An even casual reading makes it obvious that Mill was criticising the situation not the act. Mill's well known Harm Principle from On Liberty explicitly states the limits of government coercion. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harm_principle).

Kant, on the other hand is an interesting case. Whilst there is no doubt that he had a broomstick up his rear, his condemnation is usually of prostitutes themselves for lowering themselves. Neverthless, it is quite possible within the Kantian framework to come to a completely different conclusion than Helen Pringle's. But it does require to admit that women have the inherent dignity and worth to control their own body and to respect them for whatever decisions they make. (http://www.philosophynow.org/archive/articles/21madigan.htm).

Lev

‘When comparing Helen Pringle's article with that of Elena Jeffreys, I must say the latter displays better rational and empirical judgement.’

Really? Like this comment from Jeffreys:

‘The time has come for a new kind of response to trafficking, grounded in labour rights rather than moral hysteria.’

Nice either/or empiricism here. If you don’t agree with her, you must be a ‘moral hysteric’ or someone who doesn’t want labour rights for sex workers.

And this…

‘[Puangthong Simaplee’s] story was given under duress, after the Department of Immigration had taken her into detention, during the first phases of the pneumonia that eventually killed her.’

And how does Jeffreys know that the story was given ‘under duress’?

And this quote:

‘Even when the federal police uncovered the Thai woman's high school diploma, proudly displayed in her family home, and discovered she did not arrive in Australia until aged 21, the image endured of pre-pubescent Asian girls chained to beds in back rooms with barred windows.’

Typical nudge-nudge-wink-wink, say less and imply more. Perhaps the parents were telling the truth. Perhaps they weren’t. Selling your daughter into prostitution is not something a parent would openly boast about. Also, many women are not directly sold into prostitution but indirectly end up there through the parent’s actions – some are just sent away to the city to provide for the family and are expected to sink or swim; some parents are remunerated by an employer and then the girl is expected to work off the debt; and so on ...

I also think Pringle’s comment about Jeffreys being ‘viciously defamatory’ was fair. Jeffreys could have made all the same arguments minus the contemptuous, snide moralising – all made at Puangthong Simaplee’s expense

SGF,

When I say that Jeffrey's displays better empirical judgement I mean that what she proposes correlates with available studies (of which I provides the APH briefing paper and the several references therein as example).

The experience of Simpalee in the Immigration centre is also well known and a modicum of research will reveal it. The NSW Coroner's (Carl Milovanovich) report was particularly damning. She was in detention, being threatened with deportation, undergoing heroin withdrawal. The forensic report states that if she had been taken to hospital, she would have survived.

Basically, they failed utterly in their duty of care.

Thank you for your contribution.

For every sex worker, there has to be more than one paying customer and the number of sex workers required is a matter of supply and demand

A tiny minority of plonkers who were traded against their will are now to be used to champion 'workers rights.' Typical.

And Sweden being advanced as some sort of blueprint for community. Too funny.

That is a very cynical article.

Easier tho, to condem the cough for the cold. This issue is not really a domestic one, it speaks to the cultural and socio-political backdrop of the countries being left. And woe unto any liberal who would dare to speak the truth about foriegn cultural bias and prejudice.

Euphemisms abound.