More forced to marry

SILENT VICTIMS: 70 cases ‘tip of iceberg’

THE number of forced marriages reported to the Australian Federal Police has reached 70 in the past year, compared to just 11 when the practice was first criminalised in 2013.

Police and advocacy groups say it remains an under-reported crime as young girls are forced into marriages, often with much older men, and are reluctant to inform on their parents.

But so far there have been no successful prosecutions under those new laws.

And it’s not just young girls who are victims. In one case, which goes to trial in Melbourne in June, the alleged victim is a 23-year-old Iranian man who, it is alleged, was forced to marry a 15-yearold girl. The alleged offender is the girl’s father.

It will be alleged the marriage was forced to take place through use of coercion and threatened violence against the man and his family.

In another case in Pakenham, which is also before the courts, an Indian woman was allegedly enslaved and traf- ficked to Australia after an arranged marriage. It is alleged she was required to cook, clean and provide sex on demand and was unable to leave the house until she escaped.

Commander Lesa Gale heads the Australian Federal Police victim-based crime unit and told News Corp that forced marriage was under-reported.

“It is very concerning for us, that fact that it is happening here. We certainly are seeing very young victims,” Commander Gale said.

She said in some cases there might be a family history in that an elder sibling could also have married at a young age. Extended and unexplained absences from school were also often an indicator.

Commander Gale said young girls who were being forced into marriages against their will should talk to someone they trusted — their teachers, school counsellors or trusted adults or call the police on 000.

The AFP received 11 forced marriage referrals in the 2013-2014 financial year, after it was criminalised, rising to 33 the next year, 69 in 2015-2016 and up to 70 in the last year.

Laura Vidal, the policy and research specialist at Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand, says the fact that so far not one person has been successfully prosecuted under the forced marriage laws raised the question of whether the issue was best dealt with under the criminal justice process.

“People between the ages of 15 and 21 are unlikely to want to report these issues to the police on the basis that the end result could be their parents going to jail,” Ms Vidal said.

She favours a system of forced marriage protection orders, similar to that introduced in the UK in 2010, a middle ground between sending parents to jail and avoiding forced marriages.

Jenny Stanger, the national manager at the Salvation Army’s Freedom Partnership to end Modern Slavery, said the number of reported cases was the tip of the iceberg.

She said forced marriage fell under the human trafficking umbrella but might be better placed within the domestic and family violence sphere.