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A woman who reportedly enticed Papua New Guinea (PNG) citizens to Australia with fraudulent scholarship offers before exploiting them has been charged with debt bondage and various human trafficking crimes.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) charged the woman—a dual citizen of Australia and Nigeria, primarily residing in PNG—after she landed at Brisbane Airport on a flight from PNG on Thursday.
She made an appearance in Brisbane Magistrates Court facing 31 charges, and was granted conditional bail, with a requirement to return to the same court on 19 September, 2025.
An inquiry was initiated in July 2022, when the AFP’s Northern Command Human Trafficking Team received a tip-off from Queensland Police regarding a group of PNG nationals who had relocated to Australia to pursue education but were allegedly compelled to work against their will on farms.
The woman purportedly drew them to Australia by promising complete educational scholarships.
The AFP contends that between March 2021 and July 2023, the woman brought 15 PNG nationals to Australia. Shortly before or after their arrival, the students were allegedly coerced into signing legal documents and agreeing to repay previously undisclosed expenses related to tuition, airfares, visa applications, insurance, and legal fees.
These unforeseen costs placed the PNG nationals in significant debt.
The woman is also accused of compelling the PNG nationals to work on farms at various sites in Queensland—sometimes violating their visa conditions—and she received wages on their behalf from the farm owners. The woman then allegedly withheld the wages from the workers as repayments for their debts.
