With so much going on in the UK migration space it would be easy to miss the current Home Office’s review of the Overseas Domestic Worker visa. However the treatment of workers on the Overseas Domestic Worker visa should not be ignored. As predominantly women workers who live and work in their employer’s private household the way these workers are treated has far reaching implications for what the UK is prepared to tolerate and to accept.

The hidden and isolated nature of domestic work, where workers often live, as well as work, in their employer’s home, creates significant risks of exploitation. This is borne out in the reports of exploitation by domestic workers. Since April 2012 migrant domestic workers who enter the UK on an Overseas Domestic Worker visa are restricted to a 6 month non renewable period in the UK on this visa. The short term, non renewable nature of the visa meant that the 2016 change to the rules permitting workers on this route to change employer did not improve the situation given that few decent employers want to employ someone in a caring role in their home if they will only be permitted to stay a few months.

Migrant domestic workers in the UK have a long history of working with unions and winning campaigns to make sure they can access rights in practice. Most notably, the original Overseas Domestic Worker visa, created in 1998, was the result of a long campaign by migrant domestic workers, together with allies including the Transport and General Workers Union (now Unite) for legal recognition as workers. The original Overseas Domestic Worker visa was recognised by the ILO and by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of migrants as an example of good practice.¹

Before the original overseas domestic worker visa was fought for and won, workers on the visa didn’t enter on a formal route, instead workers entered under an immigration concession. Under this concession employers brought in domestic workers either as ‘visitors’ or as ‘person named to work with a specified employer.’² What this meant in practice was if the worker tried to question any part of their job, or change employer, they found they were not recognised as a worker in the UK and fear of immigration detention and removal prevented them accessing justice.

Kalayaan, a charity which has supported and advised migrant domestic workers since the 1980s has documented reports of exploitation from domestic workers in 1996 and compared these with 2010.  While domestic workers report shocking treatment in both periods, it is clear that having an immigration status as a worker resulted in an improvement in reported conditions, for example whereas in 2010 48% of the cohort reported working an average of 17 hours a day, this was 100% in 1996.³

With the UK government having announced its review of the purpose of the Overseas Domestic Worker route⁴ the outcome should be clear; the original visa was created following a sustained campaign by workers and their supporters to create a structure which recognised them as workers. In the context of ongoing evidence of domestic work being a high risk sector and risks of exploitation for migrant domestic workers the way forward should be clear; reinstate the original domestic worker visa and then work with migrant domestic workers, their allies and labour market enforcement including the Fair Work Agency to build on this and make sure domestic workers can access rights in practice.

References

1. ILO, ILO Multilateral Framework on Labour Migration Non binding principles and
   guidelines for a rights- based approach to labour migration, 2006, p.82; Report of
   the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, Mission to the United
   Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, 16 March 2010, pp.15-16, 19-20 ↩︎
2. Anderson, B., ‘Devil is in the detail: Some lessons to be drawn from
   the UK government’s recent regularisation of migrant domestic workers’,
   1999 ↩︎
3. Ending the Abuse. Policies that work to protect migrant domestic workers. Lalani, Mumtz, Kalayaan. 2011 ↩︎
4. Restoring control over the immigration system: white paper, 2025 ↩︎