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“She got to India, where she got a call from his father in a nearby village to say if you give me 10 million rupees (about $183,000) my son will sponsor you back again – because he had withdrawn the sponsorship in the meantime,” O’Connor, a dowry abuse expert, said.
“She had already aborted the baby and was suffering from so much grief and distress. She then got a letter from the Department of Home Affairs saying if she wished to return to Melbourne, she had 25 days; she returned in an extreme state of distress, anxiety and depression and with post-traumatic stress symptoms.”
The woman, who was no longer with the man, had been supported by friends and O’Connor reported to the Australian Federal Police that she had been the victim of “exit human trafficking” and dowry abuse. She is still hoping to remain in Australia.
O’Connor said that since May 2022, she had supported six or seven victims of dowry extortion and reported the cases to the Department of Home Affairs.
The study said more than 15 per cent of South Asian women born in Australia and overseas who reported domestic and family violence were also affected by dowry abuse. But under federal law, there are no mechanisms to address dowry abuse. “The Family Law Act (1975) does not enable victims of dowry abuse to recover the dowry provided by the victim or her family in the event of divorce proceedings,” it said.
Kittu Randhawa, founder of the Sydney-based Indian Crisis & Support Agency, said dowry abuse can happen before or at the time of marriage, or after it, and is often facilitated during the immigration process.
“When a citizen goes overseas to get married and bring their partner here, they are first on a visitor visa, and when they’re in that situation of being dependent, that’s when [abuse] escalates, coercion happens and demands increase,” she said.
Women are vulnerable if they need to go offshore to finalize immigration, and their partner demands money not to cancel the process. “Some of the amounts I have heard are even surprising to me. We’ve seen everything from $20,000 to $90,000 and even up to the millions,” she said.
Ela Stewart, of InTouch Multicultural Service Against Family Violence, said the organization had supported clients whose family members were threatened with violence if money was not handed over.
“It has been tricky for women to know where to go. There really isn’t a lot of specialist knowledge about this,” she said.
A 2018 Senate inquiry into dowry abuse heard it had resulted in violence, extortion and a spate of suicides and murders. The standing committee on legal and constitutional affairs recommended new national laws identifying the “pernicious” practice as a form of domestic violence.
Under Australian law, there are currently no mechanisms to address dowry abuse.Credit:AP
Sydney woman Sita*, who has been supported by Randhawa’s organisation, said her whole family remained distressed by the dowry abuse she had experienced.
She was betrothed in her teens and her fiance came to Australia to marry her, at which time her family was required to pay $20,000 for her sister-in-law’s wedding and pay for improvements to her in-laws’ family home. Sita had to give him gold worth $2500.
“He started openly cheating on me when I was six months’ pregnant, and there was so much mental abuse,” she said. “My dad paid $120,000 for a house deposit, and my mother had to give her gold and my sister’s gold to him, now that’s all gone,” said Sita, who became pregnant when she was 18.
“I didn’t know where to turn,” she said.
She is raising the child alone and the house is soon to be sold, with her ex-husband retaining 40 per cent of its value.
“This is not spoken about in our community, I want people to know and tell people to be very careful.”
The study’s recommendations included that federal and state governments adopt a consistent definition of dowry abuse, commit resources and training to help identify and respond to it, and reform the Family Law Act to provide recovery pathways for victims.
*Sita is not her real name.
If you or anyone you know needs support, you can contact the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counseling Service on 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732), Lifeline 131 114, or Beyond Blue 1300 224 636.
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