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Ayra gripped a small satchel as she slept – inside was an extra phone, a SIM card, cash and the number of the Australian consulate. She was thousands of kilometres from home and totally isolated as her parents forced her towards marriage with a man she had never met.
“I was staying with my family but in the same city as him. I felt like I had no one on my side, other than my sister who was in Australia,” said Ayra, who spoke to this masthead using a pseudonym.
AFP’s Commander Helen Schneider and Anti Slavery Australia’s Jennifer Burn say high reports of human exploitation and trafficking in Australia are the tip of the iceberg.Credit: Sydney Morning Herald
“I slept with that little bum bag 24/7 … in case I needed to just get out.”
At just 19, Ayra was one of an unknown number of mostly young women taken from Australia by their own family to be married off against their will. She risked everything – her family, her community, her safety – to stop it at the eleventh hour.
The Australian Federal Police this week released data showing reports of human trafficking have increased year-on-year in Australia.
Child trafficking, sexual servitude, forced labour and exit trafficking – when a person is forced to leave Australia against their will – all marked significant increases in reporting since 2018-19.
Forced marriage is consistently the most common type of human trafficking, making up 90 of the 340 reports of 2022-23.
But police, researchers and survivors know those figures represent just a fraction of a much larger problem that many Australians struggle to see.
“In Australia, at the moment, we estimate about 41,000 people are living under some form of modern slavery,” said Dr Johannes Dumay, a member of the Australian government’s Institute of Criminology’s human trafficking and modern slavery research network.
Dumay said human trafficking is a problem that “hides in plain sight” in Australia, even though it had become more prevalent in recent years.
“It’s not seen as an Australian issue and I think it’s because of how or what people view as Australian,” Ayra said.
“But it is an Australian issue because there are so many young people, born and raised here, that are impacted by it.
“It’s only when you put it in the terms of ‘modern slavery’ that people feel the gravity of the issue.”
Ayra was flown to her parents’ home country because they were anxious for her to settle down, start a family and carry on their cultural traditions as she approached her 20th birthday.
No one had asked for Ayra’s consent.
Ayra was “in survival mode” as she met her future husband and then his family in a cafe the next day. No one in the room had listened to her pleas to call off the marriage.
She wanted to leave, and she repeated a mantra privately to herself as the families discussed the ceremony: “Fight the good fight now or you will be fighting for the rest of your life.”
Hanging over her head were stories of enraged parents harming daughters for acts of defiance and disrespect. Many young women who have fled forced marriages are ostracised from their communities or disowned by families over the “shame”.
Ayra holds both Australian and New Zealand passports. Sitting in the cafe, she believed that was her true value to her prospective husband.
Sometimes, she said, Australian women are forced to marry their cousins so visas can be obtained for the extended family.
“You’re expected to marry them so the rest of the family can come here for a better life. It’s very hard to say no to that,” Ayra said.
Ayra told her parents there was “no way in hell” she would let the marriage ceremony proceed, and she was escorted outside, crying, in a strange city, isolated and in fear.
Her father was “furious” but did not harm her. Instead, Ayra’s family cut her off.
She is now rebuilding the relationship back in Australia and working with Anti Slavery Australia to help other young people resist forced marriage.
“More needs to be done focusing on raising awareness about these terrible crimes and human rights abuses, because every single one of them is a breach of fundamental human rights,” said Anti Slavery Australia’s director, Jennifer Burn.
“There are many reasons people don’t report – they’re fearful of law enforcement or authority, or have uncertain visa status or don’t want to get their parents into trouble.”
AFP Acting Detective Superintendent Kurt Wesche said human trafficking was known to be significantly under-reported in Australia, and it was difficult to understand what was driving the increased reports.
“Those who don’t have a knowledge of Australian laws are quite often vulnerable victims and often reluctant to progress to a criminal justice response, which can be quite traumatic for the victims to go through,” Wesche said.
He said the trend could either reflect a rise in actual incidences of trafficking, the impact of the AFP’s “Look a little deeper” campaign – which teaches frontline responders how to identify signs of human trafficking – or a combination of both.
“These perpetrators are targeting some of the most vulnerable people in our community. And the AFP is very focused on conducting these investigations and prosecuting those involved,” Wesche said.
Anti Slavery Australia says its lawyers receive reports or requests for help related to forced marriage each day through its online service, My Blue Sky.
Among its goals is to help frontline workers from health, schools, law enforcement and social agencies to recognise and support people in forced marriages.
Ayra said many from migrant backgrounds distrust agencies tasked with helping victims, like Australian Border Force, which they associate with a history “get out of my country” messaging.
“It’s a very dark image that is painted for migrants because we’ve had those negative experiences with [those agencies].”
AFP’s human trafficking Commander Helen Schneider said her investigators were taking a victim-centric approach and were committed to disrupting and preventing human trafficking.
“We hope that with an increase in public awareness, people who would have otherwise remained silent now feel empowered to report their experiences to the AFP,” Schneider said.
“Australia is not immune to human trafficking but we will do everything we can to protect
victim–survivors and put offenders before the courts.”
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