Kiran was left with her in-laws in a village in northern India, thousands of miles from her husband in Brisbane. But despite the distance, he watched her constantly through cameras installed in the home, beaming footage to a screen in his Australian house. 'He would say: “I can always see what you do,”' she recalls.
Kiran is one of thousands of Indian women whom advocates say have been sold a dream of migrating overseas after marriage, only for it to become a nightmare. The phenomenon has created 'abandoned brides' – women deserted after their wedding day by Indian-born husbands living in countries including the UK, Australia and Canada. Some abandonments are for financial gain, with husbands absconding with a dowry; in other cases, wives provide forced domestic help for in-laws, likened to modern slavery.
Kiran married in a Sikh ceremony in 2015. Over eight years, her husband visited her just four times for about a month each. He promised they would split time between India and Australia, but when she became pregnant, he told her he would 'never let' her join him. Arguments turned violent during his visits, and from Brisbane he ordered her to obey his mother. 'I had just been bought here to take care of others,' she says.
In 2023, after calls from community elders, her husband brought Kiran and their children to Australia – but on a tourist visa, not a partner visa with a path to residency. She had no legal right to stay indefinitely, despite her children being Australian citizens. He later initiated divorce proceedings. Yasmin Khan of the Bangle Foundation, which supported Kiran, says the surveillance and visa vulnerability were forms of coercive control.
The Bangle Foundation, based in Queensland, takes about 1,000 calls a year on domestic abuse, visa abuse and trafficking, 60% from women interstate and abroad. Khan says fear of having to explain cultural norms like arranged marriages can be a barrier to abused migrant women seeking help.
