LONDON—The young, tight-lipped woman you see pushing a child on a swing in a park may be working as a domestic servant, with a job description that is never written down, and a visa in a passport, which she is not allowed to hold.
A reported 15,000 domestic workers leave their families in the Philippines, Cambodia, Haiti, Nigeria, and other developing countries every year to make a better living working for families in the U.K.
Charities claim that many are not only badly treated but are effectively living as slaves. Mostly women, many of them work excessive hours, with little time off and little sleep. Many are beaten for carrying out tasks imperfectly, are physically and sexually abused, and given little food and pay, according to charities like Kalayaan and Anti-Slavery International.
Aidan McQuade of the U.K. branch of Anti-Slavery International defined slaves as people who “for little or no pay are forced to do work they would not otherwise do.” He pointed out some forced labor indicators: retention of passports and wages, restriction of movement, and isolation.
A Channel 4 documentary called “Britain’s Secret Slaves” told the story of one Nigerian woman called Patience, working for a lawyer who specialized in top-rank work for charities. Patience escaped after the lawyer repeatedly beat her.
Patience went to the police, but they did not believe her. Eventually, she sued her employer in an employment tribunal and with the help of Kalayaan, Liberty, and North Kensington Law Centre, she won the judgment.
Most workers, however, are not as lucky. Elizabeth Bondock, an ex-civil servant has helped about 80 runaways. She has tried to retrieve many passports that are illegally withheld by approaching the employers. She is not very successful.
The runaways are usually too scared to return to the home they were trapped in but they must be present when Bondock confronts them.
Despite the challenges, Bondock keeps trying. Her motivation is a wish that, if her children were in difficulties in another country, someone would help them too.
