Kalayaan, together with Justice 4 Domestic Workers, and other experts were called to give oral evidence to the Joint Committee on the Draft Modern Slavery Bill on 28 Jan 2014.
Main points include the following:
The Bill deals with criminal prosecutions for those who enslave or traffic others. It does not replace the protections which were provided by the original Overseas Domestic Worker visa which did much to prevent domestic workers being exploited.
The Original Overseas Domestic Worker visa should be reinstated as a non legislative measure in the context of the UK’s stated anti slavery commitments.
To allow an option to change employer but to keep migrant domestic workers on a 6 month visa with no option to renew this would make no difference to their current vulnerabilities in practise.
Kalayaan previously gave evidence to the Joint Committee on the Draft Modern Slavery Bill as part of the Anti Trafficking Monitoring Group (21.01.2014)
You can find a transcript of evidence to the Joint Committee on the Draft Modern Slavery Bill here
Kalayaan’s written evidence to the Joint Committee on the Draft Modern Slavery Bill is here.