Know Your Rights Toolkit Launch: When Australian Border Force Comes to Your Workplace

Vixen, Rising Red Lantern and the Human Rights Law Centre have developed a Know Your Rights toolkit for sex workers dealing with Australian Border Force (ABF) raids. 

We warmly invite sex workers, allies, community and legal services, unions, and elected representatives and their staff to launch it with us at Trades Hall in Melbourne on Tuesday 10 November from 5pm to 7pm. Come along to hear from Asian migrant sex workers who have experienced raids, learn how the toolkit was developed, see how the toolkit works in practice, and pick up your copy.

Why we made the toolkit

The toolkit has been developed in direct response to the targeting of Asian migrant sex workers in workplaces and at the border. In 2022, media reported that some women had been trafficked into Australia and forced to work in the sex industry. The Department of Home Affairs and ABF responded with Operation Inglenook, a project that was designed to target exploitation and human trafficking. Instead, ABF targeted migrant sex workers themselves by raiding sex work venues to check for visa compliance. Sex workers who’ve experienced raids have told Vixen that they were still partially undressed when officers entered their workplaces with guns, that officers had burst into service rooms in the middle of bookings, and that language interpreters were not provided. Raids leave workers afraid to return to work and afraid to seek support, and we haven’t seen any evidence that raids protect workers’ rights or lead to human trafficking prosecutions. Operation Inglenook ended in December 2024 but the raids haven’t, and a Freedom of Information response requested by Scarlet Alliance from the Department of Home Affairs showed that 103 raids happened at sex worker workplaces across Australia in the 2025-26 financial year alone.

About the toolkit

The toolkit includes practical resources that sex workers can use in the moment when ABF comes to a workplace, and it's available in Easy English, Vietnamese, Korean, Thai and Simplified Chinese. Sex workers across Australia can use it, in any state or territory. It covers:

• workers' rights when ABF comes to a workplace, including the difference between ABF having a warrant or needing permission to enter

• the different types of warrants, and which questions workers do and don’t have to answer

• what can happen during a search

• workers’ rights while working on a visa

• what to do after a raid, and how to contact a migration lawyer

Event details

Date: Tuesday 10 November 2026

Time: 5pm to 7pm

Venue: Victorian Trades Hall, Melbourne - Balit-Mil Room

Cost: Free, RSVP required

Accessibility: The venue is wheelchair accessible. The meeting room is on the ground floor.

Safer spaces: This event has zero tolerance for harassment of any kind. For the safety, dignity and respect of sex worker organisers, presenters and guests, please leave any sex worker stigma at home. Please don’t take photos or recordings without asking, and please don’t ask anyone about their work or visa status.

About the organisers

Vixen is Victoria’s peer sex worker organisation, promoting the health, rights and wellbeing of all Victorian sex workers through outreach, peer support, community-development and advocacy. Rising Red Lantern is a peer-led Asian migrant sex worker community initiative. The Human Rights Law Centre is an independent legal advocacy organisation that works to protect and promote human rights in Australia.