Our warmest congratulations to Fiona Mactaggart, who has a long and firm commitment to protecting the rights of migrant domestic workers in the UK. Her report Service not Servitude argues strongly in favor of mantaining rights and protections for this particularly vulnerable group of workers and we were proud to have her sponsor a joint Kalayaan, J4DW and Unite event in March 2013 ‘Slavery by another name‘, which looked at the effects of the tied migrant domestic worker (or ODW) visa once year on.

We look forward to continuing to work closely with Fiona Mactaggart to ensure that protections for migrant domestic workers in the UK are reinstated.

Kalayaan has produced a briefing showing the dire impacts of tying domestic workers to their employers. Findings from reports made by workers to Kalayaan over the last year make it clear that treatment has worsened for those on the tied visa and that those who do escape are being driven underground.

These findings make it more imperative than ever that the rights contained within the original migrant domestic worker visa are reinstated.

Kalayaan was delighted with the opportunity to meet the Prime Minster and to raise with him directly the ways in which the tied migrant domestic worker visa both facilitates, and prevents escape from, slavery.

On the 22nd April 2013 the Prime Minster opened the Human Trafficking Foundation‘s Hidden Slavery Exhibition in the House of Commons. The exhibition featured two migrant domestic workers who had escaped slavery. One was on the original migrant domestic worker visa and so had been able to move on with her life. The second was on the tied visa and still underground, in limbo and unable to access justice.

The 6th April 2013 marks the first anniversary of the removal of basic rights protections from migrant domestic workers including the vital right to change employers allowing workers to escape abuse. We are beginning to see the effects of these changes with workers who entered on the new visa being criminalised and driven underground to further exploitation.

The International Labour Organisation has released new global statistics on domestic workers. You can see the report here.

If you are an employer and would like to let the Government know your views, Kalayaan would encourage you to do this. It is important that the Government hear concerns from people with different perspecitves on the issue. You will find notes on how you can help here. The best things you can do as an employer are to write to your MP (template letter here) or to fill out a consultation response (see above).

Click here to see Kalayaan’s briefing on the consequences of the Government proposals for migrant domestic workers and the reasoning behind the proposals, which is found to be flawed.

On the 9th June 2011 the Government announced a Consultation on Employment Related Settlement, Tier 5 and Overseas Domestic Workers.
Kalayaan condemns these proposals which, if made law, could mean a return to slavery for migrant domestic workers in the UK.
They include options to either abolish the route for migrant domestic workers to enter the UK, leaving them open to being brought into the UK by employers through informal routes in breach of immigration controls, or to restrict them to a 6 or 12 month non renewable visa, and to remove the right to change employers even if severely abused.
Removing the right to change employer would mean a return to bonded labour.  The visa has been recognised as the main protection for this group of workers who are already especially vulnerable to severe exploitation including slavery and trafficking for domestic servitude. Removing the visa altogether would increase trafficking via illegal routes and unlawful working leaving those workers believing they are unable to contact the authorities for assistance and with few if any enforceable rights.  Limiting the length of the visa makes it likely that unscrupulous employers would keep workers working for them beyond the length of the visa, again without any recourse to meaningful legal protection against even severe exploitation.
The Government claims that anti trafficking measures can replace protections provided by the visa. Kalayaan, together with many others working with victims of trafficking, hve real doubts about how effective these measures are in practice for all victims. Nor do anti trafficking protections do anything to protect an individual before they are trafficked or to assist those who have been severely exploited but whose abuse does not meet all the trafficking criteria.
It is vital that we take action now, before these proposals are implemented. Please watch this space for campaign actions and please do get involved to prevent this move towards state sanctioned slavery.