An obstetrician has told a parliamentary inquiry that hundreds of migrant women seek abortions with her each year to avoid breaching their visa conditions. Source: ABC News.
Trudi Beck, a GP based in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, told the inquiry an “unseen population” of migrant women was seeking abortions they would not normally want.
“We’re providing services to 500 to 600 pregnant women per year,” Dr Beck said.
The NSW inquiry into the risk of slavery for temporary migrant workers held its first regional hearing in Griffith yesterday.
The inquiry is investigating the experiences of migrant workers in agriculture, horticulture and meat processing sectors in rural and regional NSW.
Dr Beck said that the women’s stories were “basically the same” every time.
“They know that they will breach their visa requirements to be able to work, because they’re in a physical job, in the kinds of positions that they often are working,” she said.
“Specifically for visa workers, I would say 95 per cent of the time they would pick a termination, and not because of personal choice.”
One area of focus of the inquiry is the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme, which aims to fill labour gaps by recruiting workers from nine Pacific islands and Timor-Leste.
Dr Beck said the unwanted abortion situation amounted to a form of modern slavery for the women.
“If this woman were in her home country and had the means to live above the poverty line, she would have this baby,” Dr Beck told the hearing.
The hearing was also told about some of the substandard living conditions migrant workers faced.
Paul Maytom, a former mayor of Leeton Shire Council and the chair of Leeton Multicultural Support Group, described some of the living arrangements he had witnessed.
He said migrants who were not used to the living standard most Australians considered adequate may consider these living conditions “acceptable”, but reporting substandard living arrangements could leave people homeless.
The inquiry continues.
FULL STORY
Women choosing abortions to keep work visas, slavery inquiry told (By Emily Doak and Jess Scully, ABC News)
