12 Years of Modern Slavery: Justice for migrant domestic workers

By  Avril Sharp

   Kalayaan works on the assumption that no amount of abuse should be tolerated, permitted to persist or go unchallenged. Key to this is addressing the systemic drivers of exploitation, including the legal structures that make people vulnerable to abuse. Whilst acknowledging that exploitation is multifaceted and abusive employers must be held accountable, our focus in this report is demonstrating the role and legal duty the state has to ensure that our legal systems are compatible with our positive obligations to protect and safeguard all workers. The UK Government has repeatedly acknowledged the vulnerabilities faced by migrant domestic workers over the years, but their concern has been restricted to after-the-event responses that focus measures to rescue workers who have experienced extreme abuse, rather than address the ways in which the legislative and policy framework facilitates their abuse and excludes them from certain fundamental protections as workers in their own right. Since 2012 and against the backdrop of the UK’s hostile environment for migrants, Government policy has seen domestic workers stripped of their labour law rights, immigration enforcement prioritised, and the protections of this workforce placed within a trafficking framework. This has meant workers have had to demonstrate their treatment has deteriorated to the point of slavery before they are able to seek redress. This reactive approach does nothing to prevent abuse escalating, places an evidential burden on workers and obfuscates the role the state plays in handing more control to employers. The visa changes introduced in 2012 under David Cameron formed part of that Government’s objective to reduce net immigration to the UK to under 100,000 people. It sought to achieve this by reducing the rights of migrants on various visa pathways, including domestic workers. Ultimately, this objective failed. The demand for domestic workers has remained consistent and the number of visas being issued remains equally significant. By reducing the rights of domestic workers, the Government did not remove the demand for domestic workers’ labour, and so did not achieve the aim of reducing their number. However, by using a reduction in rights as the method, the move did produce a significant increase in rates of worker exploitation. Evidence from workers, from Kalayaan and other front-line organisations has continuously demonstrated that restrictions on the ability of workers to challenge abusive employers only results in levels of abuse increasing. This evidence has been consistently disregarded for the last 12 years. This must be considered alongside the fact successive Conservative administrations have at the same time refused or rejected measures which would have provided the state with evidence and knowledge of the working conditions faced by this workforce. This report provides evidence compiled by Kalayaan of the abuse experienced by migrant domestic workers in the UK over the last 12 years. It also scrutinises and dismantles the 8 key myths that have been relied on when rejecting calls to reinstate labour law rights for workers, and demonstrates why concessions that have been introduced since 2012 have always fallen short of the unconditional protections that all workers are entitled to and were provided for under the visa regime prior to 2012. Ultimately, the report finds that the myths relied upon by Government are a smokescreen for the state’s failure to ensure our legal system does not facilitate the abuse and exploitation of this workforce. Kalayaan urges the incoming Government to consider the available evidence and reinstate the pre-2012 visa regime so that all migrant domestic workers are protected at work and able to challenge abuse when it arises. We hope this report will assist in discussions with parliamentarians and policy makers as the campaign to restore rights continues  

London: Kalayaan, 2024. 48p.