Migrant Workers Stand To Lose Their Rights

Migrant workers who come to Britain as cooks, cleaners and nannies could become virtual slaves in their employers’ homes under new immigration rules, campaigners are warning. Ministers faced charges of hypocrisy as Labour campaigned on the issue in opposition, highlighting accusations of sexual abuse, physical assault and poverty pay regularly faced by foreign domestic staff.

It legislated as a priority, a year after Tony Blair’s first election victory in 1997, to give extra rights to thousands of such workers. But the Home Office plans to reverse the move this autumn, sparking protests from trade unions and a former Labour immigration minister.

About 17,000 non-European Union foreign nationals receive visas every year to work as domestic servants in Britain. They are legally entitled to leave their employer if they are abused or exploited and to receive basic protection – including the minimum wage – under UK employment law. That will be swept away by proposed changes to immigration rules, which will severely restrict domestic workers’ rights.

In future domestic workers will only be allowed in on non-renewable business visas which will end their ability to get a new job if they are mistreated by their employer. The Home Office argues that the move is essential to prevent abuse of border controls.

But Kate Roberts, a community support worker at Kalayaan, which counsels the victims of abusive employers, said she was horrified by the Government’s change of heart. “These changes will remove the most basic protection for migrant domestic workers,” she said. “They will be left incredibly vulnerable to exploitation or abuse.”

She said the moves contradicted the Government’s stated commitment to protect the victims of people trafficking, who are smuggled into the country to work as prostitutes or illegal workers. They would also leave migrant workers fleeing employers destitute and homeless.

The T & G union is this weekend organising a meeting to discuss opposition to the moves and to make a fresh plea to Government to rethink its plans.

Barbara Roche, the former immigration minister, said: “I championed this cause in opposition and government and the changes we put through were to help stop abuse and trafficking. These new proposals are a very retrograde step. Workers who suffer abuse from employers will feel absolutely alone. I can’t believe a Labour government which has taken such a firm stance against trafficking will want this to happen.”

Diana Holland, the T&G National Organiser for Women, Race and Equalities, said that until 1998 the visa system had turned “migrant domestic workers into slaves”. She warned that Home Office policy reversal would strip them of their right to challenge and would once again mean abuse going unchecked.

A Home Office spokesman said: “These are not migrant workers but people who are ordinarily employed and resident outside the UK, so changing employers in the UK would not be appropriate. As part of our continued work to combat trafficking, our emphasis will be upon developing robust pre-entry procedures, including appropriate safeguards, such as the identification of cases of possible abuse at the pre-entry stage to minimise the risk of subsequent exploitation.”