Concurrent session 1b—Trafficking: Bride Trafficking

Ms Samantha Lyneham, Research Analyst, Trafficking in Persons Research Program, Transnational and Organised Crime, Australian Institute of Criminology

While the issue of forced and servile marriage has received some governmental and academic attention in Australia and elsewhere, this paper presents empirical research that reveals that marriage relates to human trafficking in another critical way; that is, it can be used as a means to traffic women into Australia for exploitation. This suggests that although human trafficking is usually categorised as either labour or sex trafficking, the problem of human trafficking is broader than this. In addition to discussing the trafficking process and the nature of the exploitative experiences of research participants, the paper recommends a range of strategies to prevent and respond to this type of trafficking in Australia.