Australia police charge man with trafficking child from Indonesia for sex work

SYDNEY/JAKARTA, - Australian police said on Tuesday a 43-year-old man had been charged with allegedly trafficking a teenager from Indonesia for sex work, while a woman was arrested in Jakarta for allegedly recruiting victims to be sent to Australia.

The Australian Federal Police said the man was charged with one count of child trafficking, which carries a maximum penalty of 25 years in jail.

The man is expected to appear in a Sydney court on Tuesday for facilitating the travel of a 17-year-old from Indonesia to engage in sex work, police said.

Several Indonesian women were allegedly sent to Australia by the recruiter and the man allegedly placed them in Sydney brothels, Djuhandhani Rahardjo Puro, an official at Indonesia's criminal investigation agency, said at a press conference in Jakarta.

An AFP investigation into the alleged trafficking began in December 2022 after police received information foreign nationals in Australia were being forced into sex work.

Australian police in May found nine women in three brothels across Sydney engaged in sex work in violation of their visa conditions.

Djuhandhani said the trafficking syndicate had been operating since 2019 and had recruited about 50 Indonesians, with the recruiter allegedly pocketing about 500 million rupiah .

The AFP investigation also uncovered a 35-year-old woman who may have fraudulently enrolled students at an education provider in Sydney in order to prolong their stay in Australia and further their sex work.

The woman has been detained and moved to a detention centre as an unlawful non-citizen.

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