Tricked or forced out of Australia: the vulnerable women at the centre of a hidden domestic violence crisis | Australian immigration and asylum
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Priya* hoped a short getaway to Southeast Asia would mend her marriage.
It was planned after months of abuse and coercion from her husband – which began almost immediately after arriving in Australia – which got so bad she was afraid to leave their Melbourne home, she says.
“I had no one to turn to. I felt so isolated. He will ask “what are you doing?” and say ‘if you dare to come out I will kill you,'” she told Guardian Australia of the months leading up to the trip.
This trip would also allow her to re-enter Australia on a new tourist visa before the one she held expired and while she waited for her application for a partner visa to be assessed.
But the day before they took off, her husband – an Australian citizen – left their home and never returned. After hours of waiting, she says she received a break-up message from him and a warning to leave the country.
Priya says that with her visa about to expire, she believed she had no choice but to leave Australia. So after reaching Thailand, she flew back to her home country in South Asia.
Amid a spate of horrific domestic violence killings in Australia, migration and trafficking experts say there is a hidden crisis where women, usually those already experiencing domestic violence, are tricked, threatened or forced to leave Australia. Technically called outgoing trafficthe practice is illegal and is treated as a form of human trafficking under Community law.
In the last financial year alone, the Australian Federal Police received 30 reports of outbound traffic. But research has calculated only 20% of human trafficking and slavery cases in Australia are discovered.
In April, the first Victorian charged with exit traffic was found guilty by a jury leaving his wife stranded in South Sudan without her passport. He flew back with the couple’s children and it took his wife two years to return to Australia. He faces 12 years behind bars.
“There was nothing I could do”
Speaking through an interpreter, Lee* says she was taken out of Australia by her then-husband last year.
She says the man, an Australian citizen, told her they had to return to her home country for a few months because her mother-in-law’s visa was about to expire.
But he had only booked a one-way ticket to Lee.
“I was suspicious, but there was nothing I could do,” she says. “I didn’t know anyone here.”
A few months after returning to South Asia, Lee contacted a health service she had used in Australia and eventually connected with InTouch, a domestic violence service for migrant and refugee women. InTouch helped her return to Australia and obtain permanent residency.
Lina Garcia Daza, who runs the federally funded Australian Red Cross Support program for victims of trafficking, says it received 16 outbound traffic referrals last year. Almost 90% of clients referred to the program after experiencing outbound traffic are women.
The program provides a range of support, including financial assistance, accommodation, medical treatment, counseling and referral to legal and migration assistance.
“Security is a big issue. They are usually running away from a violent situation. They may arrive in Australia fearing the authorities and reprisals, especially if they have dependent children,” she says.
“They are re-arriving in the country knowing that they may not be able to go to the same neighborhood they lived in or have their children attend the same school. It’s usually a big challenge.”
An AFP spokesman said Australia had seen an overall annual increase in the number of outbound traffic reports over the past five years. In the 2018-19 financial year, there were only 13 reported cases.
The spokesman said prosecuting outbound trafficking cases posed a “significant challenge” to the AFP due to under-reporting of the crimes, exacerbated by victims’ lack of awareness of their rights under Australian law, fear of retribution and language barriers.
“Furthermore, the prosecution process is hampered by legal and evidentiary hurdles, including issues such as gathering evidence from other nations and relying on victim testimony, which can be challenging to obtain,” the spokesman said.
Abuse of visas
Once overseas, some surviving victims contact Australian authorities, including the Department of Home Affairs, the AFP or a consulate, seeking help.
Others may never return to Australia.
Priya spent months researching her legal rights before flying back to Australia on a tourist visa – determined to stay in the country she had come to call home. She returned with only the suitcase she had left with and her identity documents.
A chance encounter with a domestic violence officer in a Melbourne park led to her being connected with accommodation and legal support.
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Stephanie Vejar, senior immigration lawyer at Women’s Legal Service Victoria, who represented Priya, said her client had experienced visa abuse – with threats to cancel her visa when she was in Australia and overseas – along with sexual, financial , physical, emotional abuse and coercive control.
“Her case, unfortunately, is not unique,” she says. “I think what’s unique about her circumstances is how she came across the domestic violence worker and was able to connect her with the right resources.”
She says all her migration clients face some element of visa abuse. In recent years, the law center has seen more sophisticated visa abuse techniques, including perpetrators controlling a person’s online immigration portal, allowing them to manipulate their dependent’s visa outcome without the victim’s knowledge.
“It’s not uncommon to hear the perpetrator provide misinformation such as ‘to get your visa you have to stay with me,'” she says.
“So there is a lot of misinformation. It sounds very convincing. And they say it in such a way that they constantly provide this information so that they believe it all.
Protection of temporary visa holders
Only selected visas in Australia, including the partner visa, have domestic violence provisions for applicants, meaning there is a pathway to permanent residency if a person can prove that their sponsor committed violence against them during their relationship.
“[Priya] is actually one of the happier clients we’ve been able to help in terms of the legal options available to him,” Vejar says.
She says the law center is advocating for a temporary domestic violence visa and for domestic violence provisions to be extended to all visa categories, and for the Home Office to communicate with all visa applicants over the age of 18 to ensure , that they know what’s going on with their app.
Anti-Slavery Australia, a human rights center at the University of Technology Sydney that runs a legal practice, identified the first case of outbound trafficking that resulted in prosecution in 2017, following a referral by a community agency.
This led to charges being laid by the AFP which led to first conviction for outbound traffic in Australia in 2021
Professor Jennifer Byrne, Director of Anti-Slavery Australia, says exit trafficking is particularly invisible when it occurs within family relationships.
“This could be in the circumstances of a foreign national sponsored into Australia on a partner visa who is then trafficked overseas at a later stage,” she says.
“The widespread lack of awareness of exit trafficking means that this cohort is unlikely to understand that what they have experienced is a crime and that they have rights and entitlements under Australian law,” she says.
Byrne, a professor of law at UTS, says the most common form of outbound trafficking the organization has seen are cases of young Australian citizens and residents being trafficked overseas for forced marriage.
“We are also seeing an increase in women being trafficked abroad by their intimate partners. Usually these women are on temporary visas or partner visas,” she says.
Priya was recently granted permanent residency and is now focused on rebuilding her life in Australia with the hope of one day studying immigration law.
“I want to help people who are trapped in this complex system. They should be able to seek justice.
*Names have been changed
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