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.