Backpackers in Australia facing sex demands for visa signatures: official

Some backpacking travelers to Australia are being coerced to perform sexual acts for employers who must sign documents allowing them to extend their visas.

Queensland's official Anti-Discrimination Commissioner Kevin Cocks said on Friday that mainly farm employers were making the demands on fruit and vegetable picking tourists who often live on their farms.

Backpackers who come to Australia on a one-year Working Holiday visa are required to undertake at least three months of work in regional or rural Australia to qualify for a second year.

But Commissioner Cocks told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that some employers are withholding signing off on visa applications in order to manipulate travelers for sexual gratification.

"Young women are asked for sexual favors to get their visa signed off," he said.

"Often the contractors provide accommodation as well, so women are being put in quite vulnerable situations.

"We've had a number of direct or indirect issues raised with us by the community members, police and other government agencies. At least a dozen over the past 18 months, and that's just in the area that we've worked in (the Lockyer Valley in southeast Queensland).

"What's been indirectly reported to us is more serious criminal sexual exploitation," he added.

A Queensland Police spokesman confirmed some farmers were abusing their right to sign off visa applications by sexually harassing backpackers.

"People on visas are sometimes placed in vulnerable situations where they are open for manipulation by employers," the spokesman said.

"Often people want (police) assistance in escaping a bad situation, but it is not unusual for no complaint to be made once backpackers are out of the situation." Endi