New immigration enforcement policy raises safety concerns for domestic violence survivors

This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: After a six-week delay, Immigration Minister Tony Burke has announced changes to the migration system. Amid all the analysis and discussion it triggered, there was nothing to indicate an understanding that these changes need to have a safety net for victim-survivors of domestic and family violence.

There has been significant work documenting the connection between temporary migration and domestic and family violence. This includes the ways the migration system can be weaponized by perpetrators and can punish victim-survivors (including by excluding them from access to support). The largest national study of migrant and refugee women found that one in three experienced domestic and family violence.

It also found temporary migrants were more likely to experience violence, specifically violence connected to their visa status. Current migration policy provides a safety net for women on partner visas with a pathway to permanency—the family violence provisions. However, many women are in relationships with abusive partners and, in many cases, have children with perpetrators who do not hold a partner visa.

This includes: In some cases, perpetrators lie about visa status. Women are tricked into believing they hold partner visas but actually enter the country on visitor visas. Migrant women who experience violence in Australia are denied many forms of domestic and family violence-related support.

They also have limited claims to remaining in Australia if they want to. Notably, to date, there is limited commitment to addressing these issues in the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and their children. In his National Press Club address, Burke announced a number of changes.

I highlight just one to show why recognizing the reality of domestic and family violence in changes to migration system settings is urgent. A key change Burke announced is a crackdown on overstayers, with the threat of detention facilities to increase deterrence. This matters because, as detailed above, many women overstay their visas without knowing they are doing so.