More government support should be offered to women trafficked into Australia and forced to work as sex slaves in Sydney and Melbourne, a new study has found.
Lots of the victims are young Asians who are duped into working at the brothels and seedy red light dens in the two cities.
"Many have been forced or tricked into being trafficked in the sex industry from a young age and have no knowledge of anything else," said University of Queensland Associate Professor Julie Hepworth.
"They also fear deportation because they face being ostracised by their home communities."
But Prof Hepworth's new five-year study, compiled with help from the University of Sydney, found that government services available to trafficked women was "sparse, uncoordinated and poorly funded".
In the past this was because government help was mostly made available to women that co-operated with police investigating people smugglers and traffickers, Prof Hepworth said.
Although that changed in 2009, there is still a greater emphasis placed on catching the traffickers, rather than helping women they bring into Australia, Prof Hepworth believes.
She called for greater co-ordination between governments and non-government organisations to provide better services for trafficked women.
The Australian Federal Police said in March that human traffickers were attracted to Australia because of the relatively high value of the Aussie dollar.
