Hong Kong women 'being kept in slave-like conditions in Sydney brothels'

Hong Kong women are being kept in slave-like conditions in Australian brothels and some local travel agencies are facilitating the abuse, according to media reports and advocacy groups.

Late last month, an investigation by found that a number of Hong Kong women are entrapped in Sydney brothels, where they have to work up to 20 hours a day and take illegal drugs with customers.

It was the latest in a series of articles that have cast a shadow on Hong Kong's anti-human-trafficking regime, including a damning report last month by the Justice Centre Hong Kong and Liberty Asia, which slammed the city's "narrow and fragmented" human-trafficking laws.

The women are brought to Australia on tourist visas obtained via Hong Kong travel agencies, some of which experts suspect are complicit.

"Travel agencies are the perfect front. They have the semblance of legality and are probably registered in one way, but they do a lot more," said one human-trafficking expert who declined to be named.

Upon arrival, women are brought to brothels where they are forced to work around the clock and take crystal meth - also known as Ice - with their clients, according to the report.

The investigation follows separate reports in the Australian media on how Asian sex workers in Sydney are pressured to have unprotected oral sex amid intense industry competition. Rather than see a doctor, the sex workers choose to self-medicate with drugs imported from Hong Kong, Sydney tabloid reported.