Two young Tongan women – we agree to call them Ana and Peti to protect their identities – have a deadness to their eyes that comes from trauma, writes 1News' Pacific correspondent Barbara Dreaver in this first of a two-part series on the situation.
Warning: This story contains details which may be distressing to some readers
Just rescued from China by fellow Tongans after they were lured there on a marriage scheme which ended badly, the women have agreed to be interviewed by 1News and TVNZ's Tagata Pasifika in an effort to warn others not to take the same path they did.
It's not an easy interview, and took place in a secret location with their counsellor from Tonga's Women and Children Crisis Centre supporting them.
During Ana's interview I catch sight of Peti in the corner of the room wiping tears away as she listens in. After Ana's interview she collapses in the arms of her counsellor and during Peti's interview she cuddles a soft toy for comfort.
Their story is a harrowing one.
Aged in their 20s they could be described as unworldly, which is likely why they were selected. Of the six young women we have found who were targeted by two different groups arranging marriage to China, we interview three of them.
Speaking in Tongan they tell us how they were all approached on Facebook messenger by two women based in China – a Tongan married to a Chinese and a Chinese woman, with business interests in the capital Nuku'alofa. In China Tongans pay for a VPN (a virtual private network) to use Facebook and other social media platforms banned in the country – which is how contact was able to be made.
The young women who were approached said they saw the pair as matchmakers, and they were told how there were many successful marriages between Tongans and Chinese there.
The women have agreed to be interviewed by 1News and TVNZ's Tagata Pasifika in an effort to warn others not to take the same path they did. (Source: 1News)
"I was told I had the opportunity to go overseas marry I was going to be paired up with someone who owns a car dealership amongst other businesses and each month a thousand dollars would be sent to my family," Peti tells us in Tongan.
Ana tells a similar story. She was approached in October last year and told of a wonderful opportunity which would help her and her family.
"She said she would pay for my ticket, my clothes and whatever I wanted...she said she had a friend who was a rich man who would marry me and help my family," she said.
The young women who went to China at different times were met by the Chinese woman and also a potential husband and his family in Fujian.
Both women used a translation app on their phone to communicate with their new families as they didn't speak Chinese.
For Ana things did not go so well. Ana said she was told by her potential husband that he wanted to be sure that she was able to conceive and have a baby before he married her which she didn't like.
"So I was given to another family I went to a room where the mothers come with their sons, there were about six to seven potential husbands who came to have a look," Ana cried as she said she felt looked down on the way she looked, her figure, her body.
For the first month, while the women were on visitors visas, they were treated well by their new Chinese families and then they had to return back to Tonga to get a visa to return as a wife.
It was when they returned that things started to go wrong.
Ana said her passport was taken off her and when she asked for it back she wasn't given it. Both women said the two 'matchmakers' were always contacting them pressuring them to sleep with their husbands often so they could get pregnant and have a child.
Peti said she worked long gruelling hours with her husband at a factory and when she asked her husband about the money which was promised to her it wasn't forthcoming.
Seeing red flags, she asked for a Tongan translator, and when she came to the house she slipped her passport to her. After she asked for a divorce, the family locked her up and wouldn't give her food. At times their phones were taken off them and they were unable to communicate completely isolated.
"In the end I thought it would be better if I was dead," Peti said.
The Chinese Embassy in Tonga is calling it a "transnational marriage dispute" and in a statement said it's coordinated with the Chinese police, Tongan embassy and also students in China to help bring two of the young women back home.
Tongan police are investigating and have talked extensively with Peti and Ana upon their return to Tonga.
Ofa Guttenbeil Likiliki from Tonga's Women and Children Crisis Centre has been working with the victims, providing them support along with her senior counsellors.
"We do leave the investigation to the Tongan police however what has been reported to us from some of the young women who have been a part of this situation in China is that there are signs that aligned with the internationally recognised elements of human trafficking," she said.
Guttenbeil-Likiliki said when young Tongan women are taken from situations of economic hardship they are the ones who are most at risk.
She wants to see more awareness in the Kingdom's communities and families to be diligent "about what could happen and also to be cautious of opportunities that are presented to particularly young women luring them and things that seem attractive that they could have a better life access to more things overseas".
Tapenisa Mahe is a Tongan woman living in China who at various times helped young Tongan women get out of China.
She said she suspects there could be more Tongan women in the same position.
Tapenisa Mahe told us how one of the victims who had been locked up made so much noise so the neighbours knew that she was locked up. When the door was opened for her she escaped walking for a couple of hours until she got to Mahe's home.
"And one of the victims the husband abused her," she said.
Much of the money to get the young women out of Tonga was donated by Tongans around the world after an aunt of one of them went viral on a Facebook live about their predicament.
Another Tongan woman Mele, who was approached nearly a year ago, says she feels very lucky that she didn't go in the end. Like the others, she was approached by the Tongan woman living in China on Facebook messenger .
"She told me one of her friends in China was a rich man and would be a good husband he would help me and my family and whatever I needed my ticket my clothes everything would be paid for," she said. It was her older sister who told her not to go – she could see red flags and she would be cut off from her family away from those she loved. After Mele said no to the woman she was blocked on Facebook and so she no longer has the messages.
Ana and Peti know they have a tough road ahead of them but the Women and Children Crisis Centre will be providing ongoing support.
While they are scared of being judged for the pair it was important that they speak out, to warn other Tongan women from going down the same path they did.
1News has approached one of those involved in the scheme for comment, but there has been no response.
However, contacts in China said the two matchmakers don't believe they have done anything wrong, and deny the allegations the young women have made.
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