By Damir Govorcin

Young people who lose their souls in the child trafficking trade are victims of sexual abuse and the adults who abuse them in this way should be treated accordingly, says Youth Off the Streets founder Fr Chris Riley.

“ All too often the young people caught up in this type of activity are treated as criminals,” he said. “As a society we need to treat them with empathy and understanding.”

Fr Riley, a crusader for children’s rights for more than 20 years, says he “witnessed the astronomical levels of violence and exploitation experienced by children” in recent travels overseas.

“ Children as young as 10 are literally forced into sexual slavery and routinely abused by men from wealthy western countries, including Australia,” he told the fourth annual Youth Off The Streets conference.

“ People are horrified to hear about the abuse of children in these far away countries,” he said. “The horror that these children experience is painful to even imagine.

“ The tragedy is that this type of abuse and exploitation of children is also happening right here in Australia.

“ This is what I want everyone to understand, because the longer we fail to address what is happening right here in our own backyard, the longer we continue to sacrifice the dignity, freedom and rights of our own children.”

The interactive conference, held at Bankstown District Sports Club, tackled the issue of how to bring an end to the exploitation of children.

Participants included Nobel Peace Prize nominee Fr Shay Cullen, well known for his campaign to save children from commercial sexual exploitation in the Philippines.

He was joined by Debbie Wallace, head of South East Asian Drug Crime Unit, Robert Sullivan, head of the Child Protection Enforcement Agency Sex Crimes Unit and representatives from the Australian Federal Police and the Department of Community Services.

Child trafficking is a multi-billion dollar industry involving an estimated 1.2 million children every year.

More than 250,000 sex tourists travel to Asia each year, 25 per cent of them from the US, 16 per cent from Germany, and 13 per cent from the UK and Australia.

Fr Cullen said: “Australians must remember that these perpetrators don’t leave their sexual appetites at the airport once they return home to Australia.

“ Their appetites have been whetted and this makes Australian children more vulnerable.”