Legal News

The new UK immigration rules has denied an escape route to many vulnerable women who have been suspected of being trafficked to perform housework in embassies and private houses in Britain.
According to the Salvation Army which runs £2m contract on behalf of the Ministry of Justice, victims of domestic servitude who were referred to a specialist service helping trafficked people had more than doubled in the six months to December.
Charities working with foreign maids said the number of people being abused by their employers was likely to be far higher as women refused to tell authorities for fear of being thrown out of country.
The number of cases in domestic servitude has come amid a 25 per cent increase in the number of trafficking victims reported in 2012 in the national referral mechanism. But the authorities say that increase to nearly 1200 people could be attributable to both better detection of trafficking rings and an increase in the crime.
The Salvation Army said 37 women were referred to its network of safe houses and counselling services in the six months to December compared to 31 in the year before that.
National figures show a small increase in trafficking for domestic servitude over 2012 but charities say the figures do not reflect the true scale of the problem.
Figures have shown that the highest number of trafficked women were from Nigeria. Workers have reported suffering sexual, psychological and physical abuse at the hands of their employers with some effectively kept prisoner in the home for years for pitiful pay.
Until April last year, maids were able to move employer and stay in Britain on their visa as long as they remained in work. But after the changes introduced last year overseas domestic workers are being allowed a maximum of six month visa and are not allowed to move employer. Those who are brought to work in diplomatic missions are allowed to remain for up to five years but only with the same employer they cannot move employers.
An organisation working with the maids Kalayaan has said that the workers are dependant on the employer for everything with no option they either remain where they are exploited, or leave and go underground without any official documents and be in breach of their UK immigration status and those who return home again become vulnerable to trafficking.
Even before the law was brought in Kalayaan had identified 157 trafficked migrant domestic workers between 2008 and 2010 and two thirds of those refused to be referred to the authorities. Some of them were found to have been on wages as low as £50 a week and most had their passport withheld and were not allowed to go out unaccompanied.
The Home Office said the Government was committed to tackling trafficking by working together to better identify and support victims and target the criminal gangs behind trafficking.