How domestic workers become slaves
It was one o'clock in the morning, and raining, when Frances's employer threw her out in the street, angry that she had asked for a day off. "She said that I should leave straight away," Frances says quietly. "She threw all my things into the road, but kept my passport, bank card and national insurance card."
Frances is a painfully shy, slim young woman, who originally came to the UK from Africa as a domestic worker – her interpreter has to strain to hear her soft voice as she explains why she was too frightened to go to the police. "My employer told me that if I said anything she would tell people I beat the children. I was very scared and did not know what to do." Frances had been working from 7am to 1am, seven days a week, for a wage of just £250 a month, money that was desperately needed to educate her two siblings back home. Terrified and alone, all she could do after being thrown out of the house was to sit in the street, waiting for her employer to change her mind.
Campaigners say Frances's story is not unusual; hundreds of women arrive in the UK each year to clean homes, cook and care for children, only to be turned into virtual slaves. The story of one domestic worker, Mende Nazer, has inspired a Channel 4 drama, which will be shown this month. I Am Slave follows Malia, a young girl trafficked from Sudan to the UK, where her rich employers refuse to allow her to leave the house and pay her nothing. Desperate to escape, she has to put her trust in a passing stranger to help her get away.
The London-based charity Kalayaan is the only one in the country that deals specifically with migrant domestic workers; it saw 356 clients in 2009, and says it is impossible to guess the full extent of the problem. Of those the charity saw last year, 59% said they had not been allowed out of the house they were working in without being supervised by their employer's family. Many had little or no privacy; 57% didn't have their own room, and had to sleep in rooms with the children they cared for, or on sofas and floors. A shocking 17% of respondents reported that they had been physically assaulted, and 58% had had their passports kept from them, ensuring they lived in fear of being caught by police without the documents that prove they are in the UK legally. More than half of the new workers who registered with the charity were given no time off at all.
...
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/aug/06/domestic-workers-slaves
There is human trafficking in virtually every country. For those of you surprised at this happening in the UK, I am even more surprised by your reaction. It's been long known that the vast majority of prostitutes in London are not English but instead Eastern Europeans who have been trafficked in on promises of good jobs, etc.
UK law also allows returning expats to bring servants with them for periods of time, and these servants are not subject to UK labor laws. There are also a great many foreign diplomats who bring their servants with them, and they are not subject to local law. A Saudi diplomat killed one a while back.
The UK families that I know here who have maids and drivers are generally good employers as compared, as a whole, to other nationalities, but there are always exceptions.
this is really sad...... the same is happening, all over the world, in middle east, europe, north america.... :(
exploitations happen every where..sad but true
http://kalayaan.org.uk/
I am speechless. I am British and never thought that one of us Brits could ever do something like that. Is the employer a Brit or an Immigrant? The article is silent about this. Oh my God, I am so ashamed. I hope this woman and others in similar situation be protected by the Law and these employers be dealt with to the full extent of the same Law.
I am sure that abuse is there. However, I was going by the information on the Kalayaan website..
KALAYAAN = FREEDOM in tagalog (Filipino)...
so sad... charity organizations is a must in every country!! humans treated as slaves - feels really pity!!
" it's not just foreigners who treat people like this in their own country and then come over here and do it. There are a lot of British people who do this here too. Many are expats who have lived in places where it's normal to have domestic workers."
I don't have any statistics, but some of my eastern European friends were subject to abuse by some British families, unlike these poor workers, they knew how to react and where/whom to complain to.
Man's inhumanity to man..
The problem is that most , if not all of these domestic workers are brought in by Diplomats or other well off folk from their own countries.
such employer need not to be call people! they are animals! who thicks their money can do anything!
once i thought, i'm reading a page of ME.
People are smart enough to hide their dirty backyard.
hamada, I very much agree...
humans suck
What a nightmare for these poor souls..yep we sure need such organizations around here as well. Specially with all the discrimination and abuse workers face around the GCC its now essential!
Such things happen everywhere.We need Charities like Kalayaan in GCC.
Sad....so these things happen in UK as well. Never thought it was possible.