Frontline workers reveal more victims of forced marriages in Sydney
More harrowing accounts from victims of Sydney’s secret shame have come to light as frontline workers tell of young women being married against their will and forced into lives of slavery.
A woman was forced to endure a life of slavery after being pressured by her family to marry a man she had never met before, as more harrowing accounts from victims of Sydney’s secret shame come to light.
It comes after a The Sunday Telegraph investigation last week revealed the story of Samira*, who bravely spoke about her “traumatic” experience of being forced to leave her home in Sydney and travel to Afghanistan to marry her first cousin against her will.
In these newly uncovered cases, Harinder Kaur, chief executive and founder of the domestic violence survivors’ support organisation the Harman Foundation, said one victim – an 18-year-old woman – was locked in a room in Sydney’s West by an older man, who her family had forced her to marry in a South Asian country.
“It was a terrible situation, he completely took her human rights away,” Ms Kaur said. “For a year and a half this woman was not allowed to talk to anyone or go anywhere.
“She wasn’t given much to eat – she was just trapped and sexually abused.”
Ms Kaur said the victim contacted her organisation for support after managing to escape late last year.
“She was initially too scared to contact police because she was fearful of the consequences but, after receiving support, she felt empowered to speak out.”
Ms Kaur said she was aware of other horrific cases where women were being forced to marry “much older men” against their will.
This included two other women from overseas countries that were coerced into marrying a man who was already legally married to another woman in Sydney.
“Sadly, parents are happy to hand over their daughters to these men because they think their lives will be better on foreign land, but this has serious and devastating consequences.”
The revelations come as exclusive data reveals support calls to the NSW Anti-slavery Commissioner have more than doubled in the past financial year, with a surge in victims reporting experiences or risks of trafficking, sexual servitude, and related crimes.
The commissioner and leading frontline workers have urged the state government to increase funding and implement education campaigns in schools to improve resources and raise awareness about the issue.
In many cultures, arranged marriages are accepted between two consenting adults and are legal in Australia, provided both parties freely agree to it.
Importantly, this is very different to “forced marriages”, an issue advocates and frontline workers continue to address.
In light of our reporting last week, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) has confirmed two convictions due to forced marriages.
In the latest incident, a NSW man was jailed after attempting to orchestrate separate forced marriages for two of his teenage children, who were aged just 15 and 17.
NSW Anti-slavery Commissioner Dr James Cockayne said support calls to the 1800 FREEDOM hotline had increased by 116 per cent in the past financial year, which showed an “enormous need” for the service.
Dr Cockayne said that he requested 30 to 35 staff to keep up with demand when he took on the role in 2022, however his office was still “thinly stretched” and operating with just 12 staff members.
“We don’t have the resources to deal with children and to deal with the complexity of forced marriage cases,” Dr Cockayne said.
“A lot of the costs of not tackling these problems end up as expenses on the state budget.
“When you have people who are enslaved … don’t have access to Medicare, what happens is that instead of getting preventive medicine, they end up in the emergency room – and that costs a lot more.”
Salvation Army NSW and ACT family violence and modern slavery manager Kate Fylan said just under a third of women requiring support from its Modern Slavery Safe House had listed forced marriage as the reason for their referral in the past year.
“Forced marriages are largely under-reported,” Ms Fylan said.
“There’s often a history of it in the family where a mother had been subjected to a forced marriage as well.
“There’s family violence as well, so your ability to report when you’re being controlled, coerced and living in fear is also diminished.”
Ms Fylan said there needed to be an increased awareness and further education about forced marriages within schools.
“Teachers are doing amazing work and they’re placed in really important points to be able to build connections and to know what’s happening in the world for children in their classrooms.”
Earlier this year, the AFP-led Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE) urged school communities to be alert to signs of children being forced to marry, with forced marriages the most reported human trafficking offence in Australia.
AFP Human Exploitation Commander Helen Schneider said schools were on the frontline of identifying and preventing forced marriages, because they were often best placed to spot the signs in school-aged children.
Meanwhile, Plan International Australia held an event at Admiralty House in Kirribilli last week, ahead of International Day of the Girl on October 11, to highlight this year’s theme of preventing child, early and forced marriages.
Plan International Ambassador and former AFLW star Akec Makur Chuot revealed the emotional toll she experienced after her younger sister was forced to marry at age 15 to an older man in South Sudan back in 2013.
“It had a really big impact on me,” Ms Chuot told The Sunday Telegraph.
“I’m now 33 and I’m not married yet. I’ve been able to graduate from university and I’ve done so much with my future and my life that I would have loved for my younger sister.”
Ms Chuot urged politicians to investigate the issue of forced marriages within NSW, as well as other states and territories.
“It is affecting our very own Australian kids,” she said. “We want to give our young kids, especially young girls, the opportunity to be able to have a future, so they’re not whisked away and told that they’re going for a family holiday and then they don’t come back when they’ve been married off.”
Life Without Barriers immigration services and forced marriages program director Panos Massouris said: “Up until the beginning of this year when our program began, if people wanted support for forced marriage, their only avenue was to go through the AFP”.
“It was really important that they had some other safe options that they could turn to for support,” Mr Massouris said.
“Many people impacted don’t identify with the term ‘forced marriage’, which could also be contributing to under-reporting.
“Our team carefully listens out for phrases like ‘family pressure’ or ‘an agreement’, which have been common among the people we support.”
A spokesman for NSW Attorney-General Michael Daley said: “Along with the support given to the NSW Anti-slavery Commissioner, the government is also collaborating with the Commonwealth government, the Commonwealth Anti-slavery Commissioner and frontline support services on a co-ordinated response work to address the issue of forced marriage”.
The NSW Department of Communities and Justice has also introduced compulsory training for frontline staff on modern slavery, including forced marriage, and developed a number of resources to support victims or people at risk of forced marriage.
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Originally published as Frontline workers reveal more victims of forced marriages in Sydney
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