This study of human trafficking to Australia examined cases that involve marriage and partner migration.
This is the first research in Australia to confirm that marriage has been used to recruit or attract women to Australia for the purposes of exploitation as domestic servants, to provide private or commercial sexual services, and/or to be exploited in the home as wives. The eight victim/survivors who were interviewed for this study were between 18 and 49 years old when they entered their exploitative situations. They were from a number of countries within, the Pacific, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. They met their partners in a variety of ways, including arranged marriages, family connections, and online dating services. The women interviewed reported a variety of motivations for migrating to Australia, including the desire to travel; to start a family; to escape war; and to honor the marriage that was arranged for them by their family. The exploitative aspects of their migration included assertions of ownership, debt bondage, deprivation of freedom, the threat of deportation, labor exploitation (commercial and domestic), confiscation of passports and identifying documentation; and domestic servitude. Control over the women was exerted through violence and psychological bondage by their husbands or his extended family. Sexual violence was also found to be a common feature of the small number of marriages examined for this study. Study recommendations are to improve the provision of information to migrating partners; increase community awareness of human trafficking and exploitation; educate government, law enforcement, and domestic-violence service providers about human trafficking; regulate international marriage brokering agencies and online dating Web sites; and improve immigration policy. 5 tables, 1 figure, and 110 references