Australia is to introduce tough penalties to confront what the government says is a growing trade in sex slaves.

A new report says that hundreds of young women from Thailand, the Philippines and Cambodia are forced into prostitution after legitimate jobs they have been promised by racketeers fail to materialise.

It says many of the women are kept in brothels and forced to hand over their earnings.

The authorities say they intend to impose prison terms of up to twenty-five years for people involved in smuggling young women from southeast Asia.