Zoe Bell, Bina D’Costa, Michelle Godwin | 25 November 2024
The 25th of November is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. This year’s 2024 global campaign “Every 10 minutes a Woman is killed” draws attention to the alarming escalation of violence against women to revitalize commitments, call for accountability and action from decision-makers.
In Australia national vigils have been held in November to honour the 56 women killed in domestic and family violence contexts this year. Coercive control is present in almost all the domestic violence related murders of women and children in Australia according to the NSW Domestic Violence Death Review Team, 2019-2021 and ABC News, 2024.
The nationally recognised definition of coercive control is when “perpetrators exert power and dominance over victim-survivors using patterns of abusive behaviour over time that create fear and denies liberty and autonomy”.
The legislative acknowledgement of coercive control, starting with Tasmania in 2005 and extending to Queensland and NSW in 2024, is in part a response to the overrepresentation of control in domestic and family violence (DFV) cases resulting in homicide. In many cases, control was the only form of DFV present prior to a murder, with the murder being the first instance of physical violence.
DFV is not a homogeneous experience, and an intersectional lens should be applied when considering contextual vulnerabilities and risk factors. Often, DFV analysis applies a narrow focus on the individuals involved. Individual attributes of the perpetrator such as history of trauma and abuse, and alcohol and drug use have been found to be common factors in domestic homicide cases and form the basis of risk factors contributing to violence in the home.
What is harder to understand is the risks imposed by government systems, policies and legislations, particularly how systems are exploited and enable coercive control in domestic and family violence contexts. The migration system lends itself to unequal interpersonal power dynamics and exploitative control tactics by perpetrators.
How perpetrators use the migration system to coerce and control
“Visa abuse” is a term used to describe when perpetrators use a person's visa status as a way of manipulating, coercing and controlling them.
Segrave (2021) identified several ways in which visa abuse occurs and includes threats of deportation, withdrawal of sponsorship, preventing other family members travelling to Australia and the threat to kidnap children.
The immigration system has several “design flaws” or “built in apparatus” which enable the perpetration violence against women and children. The temporary visa system is of particular concern. Sponsorship visas, particularly partner/spousal visas, and bridging visas are two visa categories where there are opportunities for perpetrator exploitation, and where there are limited opportunities for help-seeking.
The sponsorship system is high risk of exploitation because of the reliance on the sponsor, often the husband, partner or other family member. Research by Kaur (2020) found that women on spousal/partner or prospective marriage visas are at risk of forcibly entering circumstances constituting servitude and sex slavery. While Segrave and Vasil (2024) highlight in their recently published book that visa circumstances are weaponised in DFV situation and are used for coercive control in the form of threats, intimidation and gaslighting, and extend to other forms of DFV including sexual violence and financial control and abuse.
For women on Bridging visas (particularly, Bridging Visa E subclass 050), the level of risk is even higher, as these are some of the most precarious visas in the immigration system. The level of risk is high because the visa restricts the right to employment, Medicare, Centrelink and social services, including DFV services. Women and children are often turned away from accessing safety because they are on a bridging visa.
The design flaw apparatus of the migration system being exploited include the sponsorship arrangements that foster unequal power dynamics in a relationship, the cost of visas (upward of $9,000AUD) which become a form of debt bondage, and the ability for someone to be reported to the immigration department. Such reporting mechanisms can be used to threaten or coerce a person. The fear associated with being reported to immigration is intensified with the risk of deportation and indefinite detention, particularly for women on bridging visas.
It is important to acknowledge that women in DFV contexts are not the only people vulnerable to visa abuse. The same apparatus of the migration system can be used against workers, and lead to inhumane conditions, debt bondage and exploitation.
Why this matters and what change is needed
Just as DFV instances are not homogeneous, neither too is the experience of immigration and interactions with the migration system in Australia. This article touches briefly on two of the many visa types at risk of visa abuse and the varying factors contributing to vulnerability. Only a handful of research and reports offer evidence of the impact of coercive control and DFV that refugee and migrant women (and children) experience in Australia. An inquiry in 2021 by the New South Wales Parliament found that women from culturally and racially marginalised backgrounds without Australian citizenship are more vulnerable to restriction of movement, financial control by partners and/or extended family members, and early and/or forced marriage.
The UN Women 2024 global campaign for the elimination of violence against women calls for accountability and action from decision-makers. The 2023 National Principles to Address Coercive Control in Family and Domestic Violence recognises that a “whole of society approach is needed to address coercive control” involves improving policies, services and systems across the government portfolios, including immigration to better address and recognise coercive control.
As the states start creating meaningful change in legislation, it is imperative that the Federal government, in consultation with external DFV and coercive control migration experts, conduct a holistic review of immigration policies, services and systems to overhaul the systemic abuse and the perpetuation of coercion and control through visa abuse, thus meeting the requirements of the National Principles on Coercive Control in Family and Domestic Violence, 2023,and the 2024 call for action from UN Women.
Additionally, this system overhaul will have positive impacts on the rates of trafficking and slavery in Australia, and meet the actions laid out in The National Plan to Combat Modern Slavery in Australia 2020-2025.
Dr Zoe Bell (Research Fellow, CEVAW, Project number CE230100004)
Professor Bina D’Costa, (Chief Investigator at CEVAW and ARC Future Fellow, Project number FT210100759)
Michelle Godwin (Research Manager, ANU, CEVAW).
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