‘They killed my baby twice': The women being used and abused for visas

Sydney Morning Herald

11-05-2025

'He said, 'One of my friends is coming back from India and will bring some medicine with him, iron and vitamins, and you can take it and after 15 days, darling, we can go to the doctor.''
After she took the medicine, Harpreet experienced heavy bleeding and was told by her doctor that she had lost the baby.
'They killed my baby two times,' she says. Harpreet reported the man's violent abuse to police and obtained an intervention order. She has a witness to the abuse, and hopes police will speak to them and charges will follow.
Her former husband is now in a relationship with another Indian-Australian woman and has applied for a permanent partner visa. Harpreet has given federal immigration authorities details of the intervention order and the charge sheet from his outstanding family violence matter in India. She has also told them he used a fraudulent character reference for the application.
'If I go back to India, I don't feel safe. I don't feel safe if I stay here [and he remains],' says Harpreet, who is experiencing depression and panic attacks.
She has had no reply from the Department of Home Affairs to tell her if the information will be considered.
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A spokesman said it would not comment on the case, but offered the statement: 'Domestic and family violence is not acceptable under any circumstance, and is a crime in Australia.'
'The Department of Home Affairs takes all reports of domestic and family violence seriously. Types of domestic and family violence include forced isolation or economic deprivation, including dowry-related abuse.'
For Professor Manjula O'Connor, a Melbourne psychiatrist and founder of the AustralAsian Centre for Human Rights and Health, Harpreet's experience is disturbingly familiar. It has many features that she hears regularly, and the stories have 'an amazing similarity'.
'They are so strikingly similar that there must be an element of coaching going on,' she says.
'This is something commonly experienced by migrant women from many ethnic communities.'
O'Connor, a driving force behind the establishment of a Senate committee inquiry into the practice of dowry and economic abuse in Australia, says gaining access to visas and large dowries is a well-known tactic.
'Definitely she [Harpreet] was exploited by him to get an Australian visa. I have heard similar from patients before who have felt it was clearly for a visa because as soon as the visa came through as a permanent resident the man changed completely,' says O'Connor. 'Almost within a day.'
'These men have really no intention of respecting the social contract of marriage.'
Harpreet's is one in a series of visa-based abuse, family violence and dowry abuse examples against Indian women living in Australia who are being exploited, but who O'Connor says are not receiving enough action from police or immigration authorities.
'As soon as the visa came through as a permanent resident the man changed completely – almost within a day.'
Professor Manjula O'Connor, founder of the AustralAsian Centre for Human Rights and Health
Amrit went to two Melbourne police stations with letters from the state government's Orange Door family violence service, her GP and O'Connor verifying she had appeared distressed and reported violence. She is distraught that no action was taken against her husband.
She was raped by him and prevented from seeing family members. He controlled her finances and social media and sent her wage to his relatives. He stole her academic records, identity documents and the gold and money given to Amrit when she married him.
As her English is poor, when Amrit finally revealed to her family what was happening, a relative went to police with her.
'She was told that unless she has a video, or recording of him raping her, then nothing could be done because there was not enough evidence,' the relative says.
'I said, she's struggling to survive, he had choked her a few times, beat her … she was not allowed to see friends and family – she was so scared – you want her to record a video and later on, when he comes home and finds out he would kill her.'
A Victoria Police spokesperson confirmed the matter was investigated by a sexual offences team and uniformed police.
'These investigations involved interviewing the accused perpetrator multiple times,' the statement said.
'The complainant was also interviewed on several occasions to ensure police had as much information to progress their investigations as possible … Unfortunately, police were unable to pursue the matter through the courts due to insufficient evidence.'
Police successfully applied for an order to protect the complainant, it said, and have advised her they will assess the matter should further information become available. The relative has lodged complaints about the handling of the case by police.
Another of O'Connor's current clients, also interviewed by this masthead, is a medical practitioner and victim of physical, sexual and financial abuse by a man who came from India to marry her.
She took a loan to cover his visa application. His family moved into her home, and subjected her to coercive control, forcing her to disconnect from her biological family.
She was stunned to be arrested at home shortly after her marriage because her husband had lied to police, claiming she had perpetrated physical abuse on him. It meant he was eligible for permanent residency under family violence laws.
'Here is a family violence victim misidentified as a perpetrator, all too common an occurrence among migrant women,' O'Connor said.
'You pre-meditatively look for someone who's vulnerable with a bit of money to marry, then leave them. This should be a crime.'
Kittu Randhawa, founder of the NSW-based Indian (Sub-Cont) Crisis & Support Agency, and an anti- dowry abuse campaigner, says perpetrators making false allegations is 'a common trick'.
'They [perpetrators] are ahead of the game; they know what they're doing and know how they are going to get their 'evidence',' says Randhawa.
What is known as dowry abuse would be better labelled as 'absolute extortion', she says, and be discussed openly. 'We talk about cultural safety; that should not override [discussion of] criminality.
'This is extortion, its physical abuse, sexual assault, coercive control, sometimes by multiple perpetrators,' Randhawa says. 'You pre-meditatively look for someone who's vulnerable with a bit of money to marry, then leave them. This should be a crime.'
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What happened to O'Connor's clients is 'just so common', says Ajsela Siskovic, principal lawyer at inTouch Women's Legal Centre. 'Right now our migration agent has a client whose husband demanded a dowry of a few kilos of gold, got her pregnant and then just left her at her father's house,' she says.
Another woman's family provide a dowry of $40,000 to $50,000, which her father borrowed to avoid the shame of a cancelled wedding. But when she came to Australia, the woman was subject to 'horrific family violence' and the man tried to gain sole ownership of the house.
More training for justice and immigration authorities, and better information provided to those coming to Australia, and to service providers, is needed to improve protections for those at risk, Siskovic says. As things stand, 'a lot of our clients are just broken.'
O'Connor says talking about the issue is vital: 'I hope breaking the silence will help expose exploitation by the perpetrators and stop shame and secrecy among the victims,' she says.
She wants more done by immigration authorities to investigate claims reported to them, to help prevent offenders being able to repeat the cycle.
'If society and our community gets to know about it, they will start to talk about it openly – where at the moment it's hush-hushed,' she says. 'The problem would more be whether the immigration department is willing to act on it.'
* The names of the victim-survivors interviewed face-to-face for this article have been changed as they are still at risk.