Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of tables, figures and boxes
- Notes on contributors
- Editorial introduction: the modern slavery agenda: policy, politics and practice
- one Modern slavery in global context: ending the political economy of forced labour and slavery
- two The UK’s response to modern slavery: law, policy and politics
- three Defeating ‘modern slavery’, reducing exploitation? The organisational and regulatory challenge
- four Class Acts? A comparative analysis of modern slavery legislation across the UK
- five Child trafficking in the UK
- six Human trafficking: addressing the symptom, not the cause
- seven Still punishing the wrong people: the criminalisation of potential trafficked cannabis gardeners
- eight Modern slavery and transparency in supply chains: the role of business
- nine Migrant illegality, slavery and exploitative work
- ten The UK’s approach to tackling modern slavery in a European context
- Index
six - Human trafficking: addressing the symptom, not the cause
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 April 2022
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of tables, figures and boxes
- Notes on contributors
- Editorial introduction: the modern slavery agenda: policy, politics and practice
- one Modern slavery in global context: ending the political economy of forced labour and slavery
- two The UK’s response to modern slavery: law, policy and politics
- three Defeating ‘modern slavery’, reducing exploitation? The organisational and regulatory challenge
- four Class Acts? A comparative analysis of modern slavery legislation across the UK
- five Child trafficking in the UK
- six Human trafficking: addressing the symptom, not the cause
- seven Still punishing the wrong people: the criminalisation of potential trafficked cannabis gardeners
- eight Modern slavery and transparency in supply chains: the role of business
- nine Migrant illegality, slavery and exploitative work
- ten The UK’s approach to tackling modern slavery in a European context
- Index
Summary
The current policy context
When ‘Reema’ arrived at Kalayaan (a charity that supports migrant domestic workers in the UK), she was scared and anxious. She had slipped out of her employer's house at dawn with only a small plastic bag containing her few belongings. She had managed to find her passport from the hiding place where her employer normally kept it locked away. This had given her the courage to escape into a city without any money, where she knew no one, had nowhere to go and could not understand a word that anyone was saying.
Reema had learned of Kalayaan through Facebook and understood that she could get help from the organisation. However, once she met with staff and had her options within the UK explained to her, her hopes were dashed. Reema had entered the UK on the Overseas Domestic Worker (ODW) visa. Introduced in 1998 in response to shocking evidence of abuse of migrant domestic workers in the UK, the original ODW visa provided protection in law for migrant domestic workers who entered the UK on this visa. The visa recognised them as workers, enabling them to access corresponding protections in employment law, and permitted them to change employers (as long as they remained in one full-time job as a domestic worker in a private household without recourse to public funds). This meant that mistreated workers could leave and look for another job. This basic right to withdraw their labour meant that they could challenge mistreatment or abuse as both they and their employers knew that they could ultimately leave and find alternative work if they wanted to.
However, in 2012, the terms of this visa were changed, limiting the holder to six months in the UK with no option to renew and no change of employer, no matter the circumstances. If a worker left their job, they breached the immigration rules. Migrant domestic workers, who usually work in isolation in private homes where their working conditions are hidden and unregulated, experience extremely unequal power relations with their employers. The changes to the visa length and requirement to stay with the same employer dramatically worsened this imbalance of power, making it almost impossible in practice for workers to challenge any mistreatment or abuse.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Modern Slavery AgendaPolicy, Politics and Practice in the UK, pp. 145 - 166Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2019