Source : Perth Now news
Coming to Australia for the first time, one young woman had never met the man she was due to marry and had no understanding of how many basic systems worked in the nation.
Entering into the arranged marriage, her husband took immediate control of her bank account and her life.
When the violence started, she was helpless in a foreign country where she barely spoke the language.
Her husband told her triple-zero calls cost $5000 each, intimidating his wife into silence as she was too terrified to seek help from authorities.
Eventually she got support to leave from a friend, but says it would have happened much sooner if she’d understood triple-zero calls were free.
She’s now advocating for public safety announcements to be delivered to all new arrivals, similar to the biosecurity warnings shown on planes into Australia.
The warning would explain triple-zero is the free national emergency services number which has translation services available and could be shown to passengers in English and the language of the country where the plane took off.
Federal government MP Claire Clutterham championed the cause when she shared the woman’s story at an inquiry into the relationship between domestic, family and sexual violence and suicide.
The Adelaide-based MP did not identify the woman, who is one of her constituents, out of fears for her safety.
“This issue really jumped out to me as she was very clear this would have made a difference,” Ms Clutterham told AAP.
“Coming to a foreign country, English is not your first language. You don’t know what you don’t know.”
The announcements would be a simple, inexpensive strategy that could also benefit English speakers from other countries who may not know the emergency number in Australia.
Settlement Services Australia provided a submission to the inquiry acknowledging how migrant women are especially vulnerable to feeling trapped into an abusive environment.
Gulrinda Abbasova, the organisation’s head of domestic family and sexual violence prevention and response, said many perpetrators threaten and intimidate the victims of violence.
The systems work well for informed Australian women, but migrants can struggle to navigate the bureaucracy.
“(They) may not speak English well, may be very socially isolated, so may not have any circle of community or support beyond quite often the perpetrator,” Ms Abbasova told AAP.
“Women should know that they can turn to services for help and that it’s OK and that it’s not gonna cost or it’s not gonna result in their deportation.”
Other coercive control measures like financial and emotional manipulation are recognised as forms of family violence in Australia, but migrant women who grew up in different cultures often don’t understand they are the victims of domestic abuse.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
Lifeline 13 11 14
Men’s Referral Service 1300 766 491
beyondblue 1300 22 4636
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
