'Invisible chains'

Guest Blogger: Jonathan Blagbrough, Head of Technical Advice at Children Unite

Recently, the issue of domestic servitude has cropped up in the news – this time in the case of the three women allegedly held for 30 years in a south London house. It’s the first time I’ve heard the police talk about the ‘invisible chains’ of emotional and psychological pressure – something which slavery activists have long recognized is an integral part of controlling others. These invisible bonds – created through threat, fear, dependency and need – are critical to understanding why people in situations of servitude, trafficking, forced labour or any other form of slavery don’t necessarily escape, even when they seem to have ample opportunity to do so.

For me, the situation of domestic workers around the world always springs particularly to mind. While it is true that the majority are not trapped in slavery, their situation and treatment often makes them particularly vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. At the same time, it is becoming better understood that the best way of protecting them is to accept them as fully fledged workers who are entitled to the same standard of support and protection as any other worker. In the UK, the travesty is that while the government talks up its modern slavery bill it is still inadequately protecting domestic workers by its refusal to ratify the ILO’s Domestic Workers Convention (2011), which would ensure them basic workers rights.

What is less understood and accepted is that these standards should also extend to younger domestic workers (usually those 15-17 year olds) who are old enough to legally work, who are not in hazardous situations and who are not working at the expense of their education – but who, because they are under 18, need added protection and closer monitoring than others. This approach – articulated clearly in the 2011 Domestic Workers Convention – emphasises what international child labour laws have always said: that young people who are entitled to work and want to, should be able to do so in safety and without exploitation.

At the same time, policy on child domestic work has tended in recent years to focus on blanket bans, resulting in a ‘one size fits all’ approach to tackling situations which although having many similarities, can also differ hugely. A policy re-think is necessary to cater for these working adolescents who currently slip through social safety nets because of the ambiguity over their status as workers. This was the subject of the recent All Party Parliamentary Group on Street Children (5 November), prompted by Children Unite’s 2013 Policy Briefing and the publication of Ending child labour in domestic work and protecting young workers from abusive working conditions (ILO, 2013). The sooner we can accept that some older children can work, the better able we will be to protect them from exploitation.