Too big to ignore: Australia’s role in combating modern slavery across the Asia-Pacific

In March, Blue Dragon joined the Australian International Counter Slavery Alliance (AICSA) Expert Roundtable, alongside other leading agencies and human trafficking survivors, to call for urgent action.

Modern slavery is growing across the Asia-Pacific. Forced labour now produces an estimated $236 billion profit every year — a 37% increase since 2014 — while nearly 50 million people are trapped in slavery worldwide.

Survivors of trafficking across the region continue to face barriers to justice, and are often re-traumatised by legal systems that fail to protect them. Prevention efforts are weakening as major anti-trafficking programs across the Asia-Pacific continue to struggle, allowing organised crime networks built on forced labour to grow faster than the work to dismantle them.

In Australia alone, scam networks built on forced labour affect thousands of people every day. At the same time, Australian businesses import over $17.4 billion USD worth of goods each year that have been produced through forced labour and exploitation.

The Expert Roundtable was held on the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Blue Dragon founder Michael Brosowski opened the event, joining survivor advocate Synteche Collins to highlight the systemic failures that allow modern slavery to grow — and the human cost of inaction.

The Joint Public Statement issued by AICSA and trafficking survivors calls on Australia’s political leaders to double Australia’s investment in community-led anti-slavery programs in the Asia-Pacific, establish formal partnerships with survivor leaders to shape regional counter-slavery efforts, and strengthen regional cooperation to directly protect vulnerable workers and communities.

Only by working together can we make modern slavery a thing of the past.