Words Can Hurt

*Samira’s Criminal Justice Stay Visa was confronting to those who saw it. Trafficked into Australia, freed and then helped into support services by Australian Federal Police (AFP), Samira was no criminal. ACRATH volunteer Stancea Vichie mss saw first-hand the impact of that visa name. She recalls accompanying Samira to see a real estate agent and the suspicious look Samira received when presenting her passport.  It was fortunate for Samira that Stancea was able to explain briefly the background of that visa.

It took ACRATH, as part of a group of committed NGOs (particularly Anti-Slavery Australia and the Salvation Army), several years to get the visa name changed, but it happened. Women like Samira are now issued with a Referred Stay Visa.

“I remember so clearly coming back into the ACRATH office and telling the executive officer Christine Carolan about the distressing experience with Samira, who was already very traumatised by her ordeal of being trafficked,” Stancea said.

“Christine and I were so upset for Samira that the wording of her visa had caused her so much more distress and humiliation. Christine became very determined then to work for a change to the visa name so that trafficked people did not have to endure the humiliation of having the word ‘criminal’ on their visa,” Stancea said.

Stancea, who has been part of ACRATH’s Companionship Program since it began more than 15 years ago, began her association with Samira after the AFP contacted ACRATH seeking some support for Samira. Stancea has been a Companion to Samira, and other victim/survivors of human trafficking since that time.

ACRATH, through its Companionship Program, provides one-on-one support to victim-survivors of human trafficking and their children and group support to seasonal workers from Timor Leste and Pacific nations. It’s the experiences of these trafficked people and seasonal workers that have added evidence, insights and ‘on-the-ground’ information to many ACRATH campaigns.

“We knew that trafficked people were further impacted by having a visa that said Criminal Justice Stay. If someone went for a job or to try and rent a house, they had to show their passport as their official documentation. Suddenly, it could mean, there was no job or house available,” Stancea said. “This was the lived experience of these people, and we could take that information to policy makers. It wasn’t theoretical, it was real life experiences.”

The visa name change was one of the many issues that ACRATH and others including Anti-Slavery Australia, took to the National Roundtable year after year. The issue was also raised during ACRATH’s advocacy visits to Canberra, often resulting in important meetings with departmental officers and ministers who were told of the firsthand experiences of trafficked people using the visa.

On 27 May 2015, the Federal Government announced a series of reforms as part of the Human Trafficking Visa Framework, including the change of visa for trafficked people. The then Minister for Women, Senator the Hon. Michaelia Cash, said:

“Under the reforms announced today, trafficked people will instead be granted a specific subclass of bridging visa that has been redesigned for their exclusive use.”

At the time Christine thanked ACRATH members for their six years of advocacy and commitment to bringing about this change.

She wrote: I just want to acknowledge the tenacity of so many ACRATH members who have kept asking:

• for changes to visa names so they don’t stigmatise trafficked people,
• for access to English classes for people on temporary visas,
• for better access to Social Security payments.

So many people in ACRATH have worked on this issue – by writing to, and also meeting with the relevant Ministers, by speaking to many, many Members of Parliament, and by working strategically with government departmental officers, Ministerial advisors and with like-minded NGOs.

These changes represent our collective work with victims who have faced real barriers to rebuilding free and independent lives.

*Samira is not her real name.

Donate to ACRATH today so that advocacy work, to improve the lives of victim/survivors of human trafficking, can continue.