Women's Aid has said it is beginning to receive calls from women trafficked into the country for sexual exploitation on its domestic violence helpline.
The group, which yesterday published national statistics for its freephone service, said it had also received reports of minors who were raped repeatedly by men involved in trafficking them to Ireland.
Ms Margaret Martin, the director of Women's Aid, said while these calls were of limited volume, they represented a new and worrying trend. She said immigrant women in abusive situations were particularly vulnerable as they may be dependent on a refugee or immigrant or they may not have legal residency in their own right.
"Given the severity of these calls, they are of deep concern to us. These women are in a very difficult situation. We weren't getting these types of phone calls a few years ago," Ms Martin said.
Overall, Women's Aid said it received 19,000 calls to its helpline last year - a 26 per cent increase over the previous year - but was unable to respond to almost a third of them due to a lack of resources.
It is seeking increased funding from the Northern Area Health Board to allow more staff and volunteers deal with an increasing volume of phone calls.
The majority of calls (44 per cent) related to emotional abuse, followed by physical abuse (33 per cent), sexual abuse (13 per cent), while more than 500 rapes were reported to the service last year. Ms Martin said emotional abuse was often invisible and made it difficult for women to access support.
Examples of this abuse include never being allowed to speak without first having to ask the permission of an abusive partner; being continually insulted by being called derogatory names and not being allowed privacy at home."Emotional abuse erodes a woman's self confidence, her sense of self-esteem and emotional well-being," Ms Martin said.
Following work with disability groups, Women's Aid has recorded an increase in calls from disabled women who face serious difficulties accessing support because their carer is their abuser. Women's Aid also expressed frustration with delays in the judicial and legal aid system, which it said resulted in many women being forced to co-habit with an abusive husband in order to protect their property rights.
Ms Martin said a judicial separation typically took two years, while one woman had her case for a barring order adjourned on seven occasions after her legal aid solicitor repeatedly failed to turn up in court.
On a positive note, it said there has been an increase in calls from GPs, social workers, employers and family members seeking support for clients or colleagues.
The Women's Aid helpline may be contacted on: 1800 341 900
