Migrant domestic workers accompanying their employers to the United Kingdom
are being subjected to serious abuses including forced labor, Human
Rights Watch said in a report released today. The UK government is doing
far too little to protect vulnerable workers, and recent changes to UK
immigration rules make it harder for workers to flee abuse, the report
found.
“It’s scandalous that in modern Britain migrant domestic workers are subject to such appalling abuses,” said Izza Leghtas,
Western Europe researcher at Human Rights Watch. “But instead of
protecting these workers, the system makes it harder for them escape.”
The 58-page report, “Hidden Away: Abuses against Migrant Domestic Workers in the UK,”
documents the confiscation of passports, confinement to the home,
physical and psychological abuse, extremely long working hours with no
rest days, and very low wages or non-payment of wages. The report also
shows the UK government has failed to live up to its obligations under
international law to protect migrant domestic workers and enable them to
access justice if they are mistreated.
In April 2012, the UK abolished the right of migrant domestic workers
to change employer once they are in the UK, against the recommendations
of parliament, nongovernmental organizations, and UN experts. Under the
terms of the new ‘tied visa,’ overseas domestic workers cannot legally
leave their employer and find new work, meaning those abused can become
trapped.
“Workers who are mistreated now face a horrendous choice: either endure
the terrible abuse, or escape and become undocumented migrants, where
of course they are much more vulnerable to further abuse and
exploitation,” said Leghtas. “It’s abhorrent that anyone should be tied
into abuse in this way.”
"The
current system licenses more employers to abuse, exploit and enslave
domestic workers," says J4DW founder Marissa Begonia, who works with
hundreds of Asian and African women brought to the UK by foreign
employers, and treated poorly, abused or enslaved behind closed doors.
Speaking
just days after the shocking revelations that three women had been
apparently kept in forced servitude for 30 years in south London,
Begonia warns that "tied visas" could be subjecting thousands more to a
life of modern slavery.
"What happened in Lambeth is exactly the same fear I always have for my fellow domestic workers," she says.
Domestic
workers operating under the new visa system, which was introduced in
April 2012, can be forced to work long hours, are not paid the minimum
wage, denied overtime pay or simply not paid at all. And women who
thought they would be working in one household find their employer wants
them to work in two or three, without extra pay. They often have no
choice but to accept, otherwise their visa will be cancelled.
Cases
that J4DW have worked on include a woman forced to sleep on the floor
and kept alive on out-of-date scraps of food thrown at her by her
employers' children. Another was taken to the top floor of a building,
where her employer threatened to throw her off. Some are beaten. Reports
of sexual assault are not uncommon.
If workers manage to flee,
they become illegal immigrants and have to pursue work via shadowy
channels. Most are sending funds back home to support large families.
They have no option but to stay in the UK and keep working at all costs.
If domestic workers report their employers' abusive behaviour to the
police they are often deported straight away, says the charity.
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