Modern slavery survivor shares harrowing journey

When Moe Turaga was 17 years old, a trusted relative in Fiji recruited him to come to Australia and pick fruit.

“My father had passed away, and I wanted to earn money to support my mother,” he said.

“There were 13 of us who signed up. When I arrived in Australia, my passport was handed over to a migration agent. I was told there was a debt to pay off for my travel and visa costs.”

Moe, who now works as an expert adviser to the Domus 8.7 Remediation Service and a consultant to the Australian Catholic Anti-slavery Network (ACAN), shared his harrowing story at the Canberra Modern Slavery Event, hosted by the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn on Wednesday.

At 6am every morning, Moe would jump on a truck to various farms around Mildura and prune or pick grapes until dusk, six days a week.

“In those days, Australia’s minimum wage was around $5 an hour. I should have been making over $400 a week,” he said.

“Of course, I never received any money in my hand, let alone a pay slip.”

Moe’s wages were sent to his relative to pay back his debt. The relative assured him he was also sending money to Moe’s mother.

“When there were no grapes to pick or prune, I picked watermelons and lettuce,” Moe continued.

“I lived in a pickers hut with eight others. My relative arranged for the farmer whose property we were working on to give us $100 a week. That $100 was to pay for food and bare essentials for nine of us. That’s $11 a week per person. It is hard to believe you can be hungry working on a farm, but we were.”

After two years, Moe managed to access a public payphone and called his mum in Fiji.

“Her first question was – are you going to send us some money?” he said.

“I was in total shock. Not a single cent of two years’ work had made it back to her. It was the same for the others. We were all devastated.”

Moe felt anger, denial, depression, and despair.

“I didn’t know what to do or who I could turn to. I felt trapped,” he explained.

“This powerful shame made me afraid to ask for help. So, I kept on working in the hope that I could somehow find a way out.”

In this time of crisis, Moe found help through Audrey and Allan, two Australian farmers he met at church.

“When Audrey heard my story, she and her husband Allan asked me to come and work on their farm,” he said.

“One night two of us snuck off and went to stay with Audrey and Allan. They paid me properly and provided me with the support to get back on track and start sending money back to Mum. Audrey helped me to get my passport back and build a new life.”

Moe said the concept of modern slavery is still a hazy concept for most Australians.

“The simplest definition I can offer everyone is when people are coerced or tricked into situations of exploitation that they can’t refuse or leave,” he said.

“Forced labour, human trafficking, debt bondage, forced marriage, domestic and sexual servitude – all these kinds of extreme exploitation are modern slavery.”

Catholic Education Risk and Policy officer and Modern Slavery Liaison Officer Steve Seesink said the ACAN program represented the combined efforts of Catholic organisations in response to Australia’s Modern Slavery Act.

“The collaboration across over 30 Catholic school systems, Catholic hospitals, social and community services is the largest collective effort in the country,” he noted.

“It is a palpable, public demonstration of commitment, across the breadth of the Catholic Church in Australia and its many agencies, to respond to one of the great moral challenges of our time.”

Steve said supplier engagement was the most significant challenge for every organisation reporting under the Modern Slavery Act, with the scale and scope of supplier engagement through ACAN similar to major retailers such as Coles.

“We all have a long road ahead of us to transform the procurement eco-system, where purchasing decisions are driven mostly by cost, quality and quick turn-around,” he said.

“But workers in our operations and supply chains are depending on us, especially those impacted by labour exploitation.”