Asian students caught in sex trade

The women earn up to $10,000 a week as sex workers while brothel websites openly advertise "new fresh girls" arriving regularly from countries including South Korea, Thailand, China and Japan.

One Asian woman under investigation has not turned up to a single lesson at the English course she signed up to attend.

Instead she has been working 12-hour shifts, seven days a week at a group of four city brothels - one just a couple of minutes walk from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship's Sydney offices in Elizabeth St. A fellow prostitute who wants to learn English has been attending courses in her place and using her name.

Holders of student visas are allowed to work up to 20 hours a week while their course is in session and unlimited hours during course breaks, but must attend their nominated course.

DIAC fraud officers were alerted to widespread abuse of student visas, with some of the sex workers paying corrupt immigration agents in their own country up to $8000 to arrange their "visas" under the foreign student program.

There is no suggestion these women are "sex slaves."

Many worked as prostitutes in their home countries and came to Australia freely to make more money to send to their families overseas - using dodgy cash brokers so they do not alert AUSTRAC, which must be notified of transactions of $10,000 or more.

There is a high turnover of women who are encouraged by the brothel owners to earn extra money by performing unsafe sex without condoms.

"One woman reported to me that she doesn't bother with regular health checks [for] HIV [and] hep B and C and she happily provides 'natural' sex services to clients that pay her well if she thinks they look 'clean' because she doesn't believe HIV is prevalent here in Australia," one man who knows several of the women said. The man, who asked not to be named, has also spoken to immigration department investigators.

"They don't have tax file numbers, they are paid cash in hand. It is totally immoral," he said. "The worst girls are making $2000 a week and the top girls earn $10,000."