Court rulings have revealed harrowing stories of abuse and neglect by envoys operating under diplomatic immunity in Canberra.
Australia’s capital, Canberra, is home to powerful diplomats and government officials, but shocking examples of modern slavery have occurred within its borders.
Sri Lankan domestic worker Priyanka Danaratna was held against her will without a passport for three years in the five-bedroom home of her employer Himalee Arunatilaka, then Sri Lanka’s Deputy High Commissioner, just a stone’s throw from the Australian Parliament. From 2015 to 2018, Arunatilaka paid Danaratna less than 65 Australian cents (44 U.S. cents) an hour, in violation of labor laws, according to an August federal court ruling.
Despite international condemnation, the Sri Lankan government claimed that Aruntilaka had not broken any law. The diplomat did not respond to legal proceedings.
The Sri Lankan government suggesting “that there appears to be nothing wrong with this arrangement … is quite baffling from an Australian perspective,” said David Hillard, Danaratna’s lawyer.
The case follows a similar incident in March involving a former Indian high commissioner who paid his housekeeper less than A$10 (US$6.70) a day for more than a year. Both cases highlight the abuse of diplomatic immunity from criminal prosecution and the urgent need for stronger enforcement against modern slavery in Australia.
Danaratna, a former cleaning lady with no knowledge of English, was specifically sought out by Arunatilaka to work in Australia. For three years of work, from 6am to 10pm every day, she was paid A$11,212. Her wages were irregularly deposited into a Sri Lankan account and she only had two days off.
“The only contact I had with other people when I was in Canberra was with three other domestic servants. I spoke to them in Sinhala,” Danaratna said, according to court documents.
The federal court ruled that diplomatic immunity did not apply to Arunatika as she had left her post, following a 2022 case in Britain that rejected immunity from modern slavery claims. The Australian Federal Court has ordered Arunatilaka, who is now ambassador to the UN, to pay Danaratna almost A$545,000 (US$367,000) in unpaid wages and interest.
Hillard told This Week in Asia that the court plans to impose further civil penalties, as it did in March in the prosecution of former Indian high commissioner Navdeep Suri Singh.
For underpaying his domestic helper, Seema Shergill, the court ordered Singh to pay A$136,000 in unpaid wages and almost A$100,000 in fines. Shergill described harsh working conditions, including threats and intimidation.
“I was really afraid that if I was sent back to India, I would be punished,” she said, according to court documents. “I was afraid they would take revenge on me or my family.”
Shergill fled Singh’s home in 2016, leaving all her belongings behind and sleeping on the streets before being taken in by the Salvation Army.
Federal Court Judge Elizabeth Raper said Singh had deliberately evaded his legal obligations by using an unlawful scheme to misclassify Shergill’s employment.
Workers like Shergill who are “trapped in domestic servitude” are often “invisible to Australian society”, Raper said – leading to exploitation and unlawful practices.
Modern slavery
Although cases of modern slavery are less common in Australia than in Asia, they still occur in forms such as forced marriage and labor exploitation. The Australian Federal Police has reported 531 cases of forced marriage since 2018, with many more likely unreported.
Australia, New Zealand and Japan rank highest in Perth-based human rights group Walk Free’s Global Slavery Index for the Asia-Pacific region, while India, Sri Lanka, North Korea, Afghanistan and Myanmar fall in the bottom half.
Research by social justice organization Mercy Foundation has exposed the abuse of domestic workers at embassies in Canberra, highlighting an ongoing risk of modern slavery.
And it’s not just happening in Australia’s capital. In 2021, a couple was sentenced to prison for enslaving a Tamil woman in their Melbourne home for eight years. Local media reported that the worker had tea and curry thrown at her and was hit with a frozen chicken. When she collapsed and was taken to hospital, she weighed just 40kg.
The recent lawsuits against diplomats reflected a pattern of “acceptance at the government level, at the official level, that they (the victims) were paid what they would earn if they were back in India or Sri Lanka,” Hillard said.
“I suspect that many countries and their diplomats have just assumed that no one will notice and that no one will care.”
Diplomatic immunity is intended to protect open communications between countries and is not intended as a blanket excuse
Daniel Flitton, Lowy Institute
Cultural and religious beliefs can also influence how abuse is normalized among some communities, says Fuzz Kitto, director of NGO Be Slavery Free.
He gave the example of reincarnation and the belief that the victim must have done something “quite wrong” in a past life to be enslaved.
While Kitto said the Australian government has made efforts to inform domestic workers of their rights, oversight remains inadequate. The federal court criticized the lack of control over Danaratna’s visa application, which could have prevented her exploitation.
A spokeswoman for Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs told This Week in Asia that it regularly communicates to foreign missions about the importance of adhering to Australian laws, holds pre-employment briefings and holds annual meetings with employees.
Such cases of modern slavery have the potential to strain diplomatic relations, Daniel Flitton of the Lowy Institute think tank noted in a recent analysis – even as tensions between Australia, Sri Lanka and India remain low.
Diplomatic immunity should not serve as a blanket excuse for exploitation, Flitton wrote.
“Immunity is intended to protect open communication between countries, not to be a catch-all excuse,” he said.
“The simplest answer would be to end the practice of allowing domestic workers to accompany diplomats. That didn’t happen.”
Republished from South China morning mailSeptember 9, 2024
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