Drawing on primary research conducted by the authors (forthcoming) in Australia, this report documents help-seeking strategies of victim/survivors of human trafficking who are exploited by their intimate partners involved in their migration.
This report emphasizes the importance of educating the community and professionals from a wide range of sectors about the plight of these exploited victims and their need for services. These sectors include health, mental health, child protection, social welfare, social work, domestic violence, migration, and legal and law enforcement professions. The focus of this paper is on the help-seeking strategies of human trafficking victims in cases where marriage and other intimate relationships form the context in which victimization is occurring. The exploitation may include forced marriage, servile marriage, domestic servitude, sexual servitude, forced labor, and other slavery-like conditions. For the purpose of this discussion "help-seeking" is defined as "any communication about a problem or troublesome event which is directed toward obtaining support, advice, or assistance in times of distress," (Gourash cited in Lumby and Farrelly, 2009). Eight victim/survivors were interviewed for this study, and other information was obtained from court reports on relevant cases. Findings indicate that victims alerted a wide range of potential helpers to their plight, including neighbors, friends, family members, colleagues, community workers, English tutors, migration agents, medical and mental health workers, child protection workers, and local police. Barriers to help-seeking are noted. Recommendations based on the findings focus on improving awareness of and appropriate responses to such victims among the general public and practitioners most likely to encounter such victims in their work. 15 references