'Absolutely unacceptable': UK accused of failing to protect domestic workers

Campaigners have warned that thousands of foreign domestic workers remain enslaved behind the closed doors of some of Britain’s wealthiest neighbourhoods after the government failed to implement safeguards designed to protect them from abusive and exploitative employers.

In the past year, the Home Office has issued 18,950 visas under its domestic workers in private households scheme, which allows foreign families to bring domestic staff with them when staying in the UK.

Changes made by the Home Office last year allowed overseas domestic workers to switch employers within the six-month term of their visa. The move followed a damning review of the scheme that concluded the government was exposing thousands of women brought to the UK by wealthy Gulf families to conditions of slavery, trafficking and abuse.

Yet, according to data provided by Kalayaan, the UK’s leading organisation for domestic workers, the changes have made no difference to the levels of abuse and domestic servitude reported to them by women who have successfully escaped their workplaces.

Kalayaan said that, among the women issued a visa under the amended scheme who had sought their help over the past year, most remained unaware of their right to change employers.

Kalayaan’s data showed that 85% of domestic workers under the amended visa scheme reported psychological abuse. In addition, 63% said they had no access to regular food and 81% claimed they were not allowed out of the house; 83% said their employer took their passport, while 33% said they received no wages at all.

“In the last year we have seen the highest number of women on record coming to us who we consider to qualify as victims of trafficking,” said Avril Sharp, policy and casework officer at Kalayaan.

“It’s absolutely unacceptable that a year later even these small concessions have not been implemented. The human cost is evident, as we are seeing the same levels of abuse reported to us by women who have suffered for months at the hands of their employers before managing to escape, but who had no idea that they now had the right to change employment or seek help.”

Sharp acknowledged that the number of women who reported abuse to Kalayaan – 82 in the past year – was small in comparison with the thousands of visas being issued.

“We are one NGO, and the women coming to us are the very few that have managed to escape and find members of their community who direct them to our door,” she said. “[But] the review last year was very clear about the potential scale of the abuse happening in private houses and hotels across the country. Even one woman being abused on this visa scheme is enough to argue that adequate protections need to be put in place.”

Campaigners are also calling for the Home Office to implement promised measures, including orientation meetings designed to inform overseas domestic workers of their rights when they first arrive in the UK, and welfare visits to their places of employment.

“If you give rights to workers you’ve got to make sure they know what they are,” said Sharp.

The government has argued that restrictions to the domestic worker visa are designed to discourage workers from staying in the UK.

“We will not tolerate modern slavery, abuse of workers or the criminals who wish to exploit the vulnerable. That is why we have taken world leading action through the Modern Slavery Act,” said a Home Office spokesperson.

“We have removed the overseas domestic worker visa tie and will be introducing additional reforms to ensure that workers are better protected from abuse and slavery. These new measures will include information sessions for overseas domestic workers so that they are aware of their rights as workers in the UK.”

The Home Office also said that immigration rules have already been changed to allow domestic workers confirmed as victims of slavery to apply for a two-year domestic work visa.

Yet Anti-Slavery International said the government’s treatment of overseas domestic workers jarred with claims that the UK has become a world leader in the fight against modern slavery.

“It is recognised worldwide that those in domestic work are among the most vulnerable to slavery and abuse, yet this government, for all its rhetoric around modern slavery, has failed to protect overseas domestic workers on its own turf,” said Klara Skrivankova, UK and Europe programme manager for Anti-Slavery International.

“Paradoxically, the hardest part of reaching slavery victims is usually that we don’t know where they are, but here you have a group of workers, and the Home Office knows exactly where to find them, and yet the most basic safeguards are not being put in place. It defies logic.”

Lord Hylton, an independent peer involved in campaigning for changes to the domestic worker visa, also criticised the government’s refusal to better safeguard domestic workers against exploitation.

“The government haven’t been terribly helpful, they have made a few minor improvements but the Home Office and the government generally want to encourage rich Arabs to come to London and have holidays in England,” he said. “The Home Office have been told many times [how vulnerable the workers are], but they are keen to restrict immigration to the lowest possible level.”

Campaigners want the government to allow overseas domestic workers to apply for visa extensions so that they have a better chance of finding decent employment.

“When women manage to find us, none have any idea that they could have changed employer, many only have a few weeks left on their visa and there is no real way of them finding alternative decent employment,” said Marissa Begonia, founder of Justice for Domestic Workers. “Their biggest fear is being deported. How many will find a way to escape when they only have a few days left on their visa? Who will employ them even if they do escape?”

Sheila Tilan, co-founder of the Filipino Domestic Workers Association, said she is already seeing women head back into exploitative situations because they can’t find safe work on what remains of their six-month visas.

“There are four ladies we are helping [who are under the amended visa scheme] who have already escaped an abusive employer but the only other work they are being offered is almost as bad,” she said.

“They are only being offered jobs that are 16-hour days for low pay, starting at 8am and ending at 9pm. The six months they have been given to find other work is not enough. I can’t give them false hope about staying when I’m not sure they will be able to.”