Peers urge changes to visa rules to protect victims of domestic slavery

Victims of domestic slavery need greater protections, the Lords heard.

Labour’s Lord Rosser said changes to visa rules were required to help rescue foreign workers from abusive employment.

The peer said that domestic workers should be able to change their employer as long as they stayed in the same sector.

Lord Rosser also urged that domestic workers should be able remain in the UK for three months while they sought new employment if there was evidence they had been subjected to modern slavery.

The plea was made as the Lords debated the Government’s flagship legislation to tackle illegal immigration in committee stage.

Crossbench peer Lord Alton of Liverpool said the Immigration Bill allowed the Lords to “rectify a long standing injustice” regarding visa restrictions on domestic workers which he warned made it hard for them to leave abusive employers.

Lord Alton quoted research that showed how “such workers have literally sacrificed themselves” for the wellbeing of their wider families.

“They do not self protect in the way that someone with more choices would expect. Many explain that they are prepared to put up with practically any amount of mistreatments if they can provide for their children, and ensure that the same will not happen to them,” Lord Alton said.

Crossbench peer Lord Green of Deddington said that easing visa restrictions could lead to more illegal workers coming to the UK.

Home Office Minister Lord Bates said the Government would discuss the issue ahead of bringing forward proposals on the matter of visa restrictions before the Bill goes to its report stage.

The Immigration Bill, which has already cleared the Commons despite widespread opposition from Labour, Liberal Democrat and SNP MPs, proposes a new offence of illegal working and requires landlords to carry out checks on prospective tenants to establish their status.

Government whip Lord Ashton of Hyde rejected opposition calls to allow asylum seekers to take up paid work after six months if their application decision was still pending as “not sensible”.

The Tory peer said the present set-up was needed to stop people bypassing restrictions on workers from outside specified European countries by claiming asylum status.

Lord Ashton said it was “reasonable” to allow asylum seekers to apply for permission to work after being in the system for 12 months.

The peer pointed to Germany where asylum seekers could work after three months, and was the country with the greatest number of asylum applications in Europe.

Lord Ashton said some 3,500 people seeking asylum status were still awaiting a decision after six months.

Labour’s Baroness Lister of Burtersett warned that such checks could be discriminatory against women trying to escape abusive relationships as they may lack documentation due to control by the violent partner they are fleeing, which could see them unable to gain independent accommodation.

Former cabinet minister John Gummer, who sits in the upper house as Lord Deben, said he found some parts of the Government’s attitude “incomprehensible”.

The Tory peer said he supported ID cards, but the Government did not, and yet they were now “creating a section of the community that has to have an ID card” due to the documentation needed to rent.

Lord Deben said the new rules would make landlords suspicious of different races, and lead to people “sneaking on neighbours”.

“Racism is endemic. It is very easy to increase it. It is very simple to make people suspicious of those who have a different colour, and therefore we should be leaning over in the opposite direction from the way in which this legislation seems to lean.

“I find it pretty unacceptable in this country that people should have to prove that they are suitable for renting a flat before they are allowed to rent a flat. I don’t find that a very attractive thing.

“It is likely that landlords will be more suspicious of people of a different ethnic minority, or with a foreign accent than they will be of somebody who speaks correct English with the crystal accents which I heard in this house.

“I don’t myself like a society which lays these kinds of responsibilities upon landlords, or indeed, anyone else, I want a society which is not about sneaking on one’s neighbour,” Lord Deben said.

The Conservative peer said the issue should be looked at again and only brought-in if a major pilot scheme was shown to work.

Lord Bates said landlords must not discriminate when carrying-out the “right to rent” checks as it would be illegal for them to do so.

The minister said Labour had introduced similar measures regarding social housing when in power.

He rejected protests that it was unfair to penalise landlords for renting to people who turn out to be illegal migrants.

Lord Bates said the penalties would be used against “rogue landlords” who deliberately flout the law repeatedly, not against genuine landlords who merely made a mistake.

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