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Minister for Home Affairs Tony Burke with five Iranian women soccer players who were granted asylum in Australia on Monday night.

The government’s done the right thing by these Iranian players. But here’s what must happen next

Now that Iranian soccer players have been granted visas, focus can and should shift to those who sought to traffick them and others out of Australia.

  • James Cockayne

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Benoa Port in Bali is one of Indonesia’s biggest fishing ports with tuna as one of its biggest catches.

The cost of canned tuna: 18-hour days, 18 months at sea

An investigation has found workers are subjected to long shifts, often without legal pay, amid claims some are months on board without a port visit.

  • Elias Visontay
Grace Forrest, founder of anti-slavery organisation Walk Free.

Is your new car or TV fuelled by forced labour? The $100b trade risk

The Anti-Slavery Commissioner has warned that Australia is falling behind global peers as $100 billion in imports are linked to modern slavery.

  • Rob Harris
A woman walks past a mural calling for women and children’s rights in Bamian, Afghanistan.

Unspeakable violence against girls and women meets global silence

Australia has just introduced a world-leading sanctions regime against the Taliban, an important but insufficient step as the world turns away.

  • Virginia Haussegger
Kenyan mother Esther and her newborn son, Abudy.

Born to an unwed mother far from home, this baby cannot leave

Caressing her son Abudy’s tiny hands, Esther says she cannot understand why her newborn has to face the consequences for a situation not of his making.

  • Vivian Nereim and Abdi Latif Dahir
The United Nations have raised concerns of risk of slavery on Australian farms in a new report.

No health cover, no home, no money: The women forced to choose between their visa or their baby

A United Nations expert has criticised Australia’s patchwork laws protecting people from slavery, warning of “severe patterns of exploitation”.

  • Tania Ewing and Amber Schultz
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A scene from Midsommar, starring Florence Pugh, about a couple drawn into a cult. The psychological scars of a coercive religion can take years to heal.

I escaped a cult – for years I didn’t even realise I was in one

I have long hidden the shame that I was gullible enough to be lured into such a group. The perception that people in cults are different from the rest of us needs to be challenged.

  • Ahona Guha
Servants at embassies have been paid as little as $9 a day.

Embassies on notice for treating servants like slaves

Former Labor immigration and workplace minister Chris Evans, Australia’s first anti-slavery commissioner, is aiming to use his role to bring more cases to light.

  • Olivia Ireland
Sarah S escaped sex trafficking in 2020 and did not know she was a victim of modern slavery until she tried to flee and was told she owed $25,000. Sarah is now the Lived Experience Advisor to the Office of Anti-Slavery Commissioner. The UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery is in Australia conducting a country assessment that will deliver its interim findings tomorrow to the government. Sydney, NSW. November 26, 2024. Photo: Kate Geraghty

Sarah escaped a cult. She found herself in a living hell

The young woman’s dream of freedom quickly became a nightmare of sexual exploitation.

  • Amber Schultz
Modern slavery includes forced labour, servitude and forced marriage.

The 41,000 urgent priorities our new anti-slavery commissioner has to tackle

In Australia, the number of people living in modern-day slavery could fill the Gabba. So while the government’s appointment is welcome, on its own it’s not enough.

  • Lorraine Finlay