Forthcoming Events and Media:

Documentary on the abuse of migrant domestic workers who accompany diplomats

On the 22 June 2010 at 8pm File on 4 (Radio 4) is airing a documentary on migrant domestic workers (the programme is repeated on Sunday 27 June 2010 at 5pm).  The documentary includes testimonies of a number of migrant domestic workers and will focus particularly on those domestic workers who are brought to the UK by diplomats, who suffer abuse and who have no viable way to flee this abuse because their visa ties them to their employer.  It looks at the attitude of these diplomats towards their staff, and the response from the Government about these shocking human rights violations still persisting in the UK.  See the ‘get involved’ pages if you want to be kept updated on this or other issues.

Domestic worker testimony – why the migrant domestic worker visa is a vital protection

On 19 June 2010 a migrant domestic worker interview will be appearing on Saturday Morning Live with Fi Glover.

Launch of monitoring report on UK anti-trafficking measures (16 June 2010)

Kalayaan is a member or a coalition of nine NGOs including Anti-Slavery International, Amnesty International UK, and ECPAT, who have undertaken a year-long project monitoring the Governments actions against the commitments they made when ratifying the Council of Europe Convention on Action Against Trafficking.  The report will be launched officially in the House of Commons tonight.  The report finds that the system is too focused on immigration and does not offer the protection needed by victims. You can read what has been reported by the BBC and the Guardian today.

Recent News:

Historic Moment: International Convention on “Decent Work for Domestic Workers”

These past weeks have been historic for migrant domestic workers.  The International Labour Organisation held a two week conference with member states, employer representatives and workers representatives with a view to creating an international instrument (a convention) to protect the rights of domestic workers.  The UK worker’s representative put forward by the TUC was a migrant domestic worker herself, which is extremely important in raising the voice of migrant domestic workers at the very  highest level of policy making.

Marissa, who represented UK domestic workers, is a member of the group “Justice 4 domestic workers” supported by Unite the Union and Kalayaan.  She undertook the role with determination and commitment, quickly getting to grip with the bureaucratic processes, understanding the subtleties of the negotiations and ultimately working very hard (the committee sat until 9pm every night for two weeks).

The most historic moment occurred during the first few days of the committee, when they voted as to whether there should be a convention (i.e. a legal instrument that becomes binding on a state once they ratify) or only a recommendation (essentially guidance on good practice which would be non-binding).  The vote resulted in their being a convention plus a recommendation, and importantly the UK voted in support of this.  This is a huge step forward for all those domestic worker groups, NGOs, Unions, Governments and others working to ensure that domestic work is recognised as work and that all domestic workers enjoy basic protections in law.

Current Campaigns:

Domestic workers trafficked by diplomats need vital escape route

Currently in the UK migrant domestic workers who accompany Diplomats to the UK are unable to change their employer without losing their immigration status and facing deportation.  For those migrant domestic workers who find that their employer abuses or exploits them, this restriction means they find themselves in what is effectively bonded labour.

Kalayaan know through experience of working with migrant domestic workers how important the right to change employer is. This right means that migrant domestic workers who are abused or exploited can go to the police without fear of deportation, they can enforce their employment rights through the employment tribunal and they can continue to work to feed their families or pay off debts at home whilst remaining visible in the UK.

Kalayaan’s statistics suggest that migrant domestic workers who accompany diplomats to the UK are dramatically more vulnerable to trafficking and forced labour than those who accompany private households.  The previous immigration minister Phil Woolas made an ‘in principle’ agreement to change the system and admitted that at present “there is no question that we are putting those diplomatic relations above the interest of victims” (see adjournment debate below).

Kalayaan is calling on the Government to extend the protections of the migrant domestic worker visa, most vitally the right to change employer, to cover migrant domestic workers brought to the UK by diplomats.

Please contact Jenny Moss at Kalayaan for a briefing.  Otherwise, for more information about the issue and about Kalayaan’s campaign you can read/listen to the following:

- The File on 4 documentary mentioned above - Radio 4, 8pm, 22 June 2010 (we will provide the link to listen again here when it appears)

- Kalayaan’s submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery

- The Hansard text (the official record of the Houses of Parliament) of the adjournment debate on the issue (17 March 2010), tabled by Martin Salter MP and Anthony Steen MP.

Previous media on the issue:

BBC london interview with one domestic worker who was trafficked by a diplomat (please not Kalayaan is in no way connected to the person posting on youtube or those commenting on the clip)

Telegraph "The abuse of migrant workers by London's diplomatic elite is a scandal that must end now"

Guardian "Saudi and Emerati diplomats accused of trafficking staff into UK"

The Sunday Times "Diplomats in London embassies 'traffic women to use as slaves'"

The Times "Migrant domestic workers: 'I was in a prison, a cage, just like a slave'

The Independent on Sunday "Diplomat's nanny lifts lid on modern slavery"

Migrant domestic workers on a Kalayaan trip to Cambridge