CAPÍTULO II MARCO TEÓRICO
2.2 Bases teóricas
2.2.2 Los Estados Financieros
these slaves profit from it personally, defraud the Exchequer, undercut
legitimate businesses and, of course, abuse the individual workers.’
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– the obvious immigration issues may overwhelm any more subtle modern slavery indicators. The CSJ recommends that training for UKBA staff is focussed on widening the understanding of modern slavery to ensure that staff understand that a trafficked person is a victim first and foremost, not an illegal immigrant.
In some cases, a quick reaction at the border can make the difference between whether or not a potential victim of modern slavery disappears into exploitation, as the following case study illustrates.
13 Case study submitted by the Metropolitan Police, in evidence to the CSJ, July 2012
‘The mentality at the border agency is that this has been a choice.
This culture needs to be broken.’
CEO of charity working with trafficked women, in evidence to the CSJ
In July 2007 Natalie, originally from Russia, escaped from an organised criminal network that had lured her from her home country with the false promise of finding her legitimate work in the UK. Upon arrival in the UK Natalie had been forced into sexual exploitation and held to a debt bond of £80,000. She was made to work in brothels in West London. Her passport was taken from her and she was not allowed to reclaim it. Police investigations identified that the man controlling her – named Andrei – took all of the money she earned. Financial investigations revealed that Andrei had purchased 23 flights since his account was opened in 2008. The majority of these flights were one way from Europe into the UK and the passenger details were all female.
In March 2009, Andrei was stopped by the border authorities at Vienna Airport, with two Eastern European females. Both of these females were intending to travel to the UK on false Bulgarian ID cards provided to them by Andrei’s criminal associates. When he was stopped, Andrei was found to have seven mobile phones in his possession. When the women were interviewed they stated that the reason for their travel was in response to advertisements on the internet in Russia. One responded to an advert claiming ‘We invite young girls to England’ and the other, ‘Agency-legal-save, confidential, £3000 a month, a broad range of employment opportunity, help to legalise your stay, assistance with favourable acquaintances, assistance in obtaining documents’. They were told that they would earn 10,000 Euros a month in England working as escorts and as dancers in London clubs. On application for this work, they were asked to send passport photos and copies of their passports. These same images later appeared on their false Bulgarian ID cards. They were instructed to make their way to Moscow railway station, where they were met by two of Andrei’s associates, who handed them the false ID documents. The two females went by bus to Frankfurt and here they were picked up by Andrei and driven to Vienna. At the airport in Vienna, Andrei removed the false Bulgarian ID card from one of the females when he saw that her friend was experiencing problems at the check-in. In August 2011 Andrei was convicted of numerous offences including Conspiracy to Traffick into the UK, Conspiracy to Control Prostitution and Removal of Criminal Property (several charges totaling in excess of £300,000). Andrei received a custodial sentence of 10 years with numerous sentences to run concurrently. 13
4.3.3.1 The Overseas Domestic Worker visa
The Overseas Domestic Worker (ODW) visa was introduced in 1998 with cross-party consensus, and gave the right for foreign domestic workers to legally exit the employment contracts for which they entered the UK and take up work for a new employer. This helped to guard against exploitative employment relationships by giving workers the power to leave an unfair or abusive employer.14 It was
widely agreed that ‘maintaining a legal channel of migration for domestic workers is vital to stop a return to mass trafficking and illegal migration’.15 Under the ODW visa, domestic
workers were able to enter the UK with their employers if they had been continually employed for a year or more outside the UK with their employer – this constituted proof of an existing working relationship. The ability to change employer, according to evidence and accounts from NGOs, police and domestic workers, offered an essential protection from abuse and exploitation:
‘The ability to legally change employer is a fundamental safeguard against a return to bonded labour’.16
The Home Affairs Select Committee on human trafficking in 2008 stated in its inquiry that ‘to retain the Migrant Domestic Worker visa and the protection it offers workers is the single most important issue in preventing the forced labour and trafficking of such workers’.17
This visa was cited as best practice by the International Labour Organisation and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants.18 The CSJ therefore has serious
fears over the changes made to the ODW visa on 6 April 2012.19
Under the new visa rules, a domestic worker arriving in the UK can only remain in the country if they stay with their original employer. This presents serious risks that the informal
14 Joshi B, Looking in the wrong direction? Changes to the Overseas Domestic Worker Visa and its consequences, 5 March 2012 [accessed via: http://www. migrantsrights.org.uk/migration-pulse/2012/looking-wrong-direction-changes-overseas-domestic-worker-visa-and-its-consequen (14/01/13)] 15 MacTaggart F & Lawrence M, Service not Servitude, October 2011 [accessed via: http://www.fionamactaggart.org.uk/uploads/d1b4992c-
e69e-3784-b9c2-8c43818fbd3d.pdf (01/11/12)] 16 Ibid, p8
17 Home Affairs Committee, The Trade in Human Beings: Human Trafficking in the UK. Sixth report of session 2008–9, Volume 1. House of Commons, p26
18 UN Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, Addendum: Mission to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, 16 March 2010, A/HRC/14/30/Add. 3
19 UKBA website, Domestic Workers in Private Households [accessed via: http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/visas-immigration/working/ othercategories/domesticworkers/ (14/0/13)]
Recommendation:
Training for UKBA staff should be focussed on widening the understanding of human trafficking and modern slavery to ensure that staff understand that a victim is not, first and foremost, an illegal immigrant.
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and unregulated nature of this form of work will increase, disempowering workers through restricting their freedom to leave an abusive employer and fostering increased cases of modern slavery. An already hidden workforce is at risk of becoming almost invisible. Domestic workers with abusive employers are now left with three choices: to remain in the situation and submit to the abuse their job entails; to leave the UK and return home (this is very often not seen as a viable option for domestic workers who are under significant financial pressure with dependents at home); or to leave their employer and their home (many migrant domestic workers live with their employers) and face the prospect of living and working illegally in the UK. The option of reporting their abuse is effectively non-existent as they would have nowhere to live and no right to earn money legally while their complaint is investigated.20 The removal of the protections inherent in the ODW visa,
given the particular vulnerabilities of this group of workers, makes workers less visible, less accountable, and fundamentally less safe:
‘Domestic workers who are brought here by employers will become undocumented and vulnerable to violence and exploitation if they flee abuse rather than remaining visible and contributing through their taxes’.21
The removal of this visa has increased the vulnerability of the ‘already isolated and dependent worker’ and removed any bargaining power they had over their employer through ‘attaching’ their immigration status to their employer.22
The Government’s idea that scrapping the ODW visa would stop the number of domestic workers travelling to the UK is not based on reality; evidence taken by the CSJ has suggested that domestic workers will simply be brought over by other means, legal and illegal. Though this was a problem before the ODW visa was abolished, the absence of a protective option for domestic workers has undoubtedly increased their vulnerability.
20 Jenny Moss, Community Advocate, Kalayaan, in evidence to the CSJ, October 2012 21 Kalayaan, open letter to Damien Green MP, former Minister for Immigration, December 2011 22 Kalayaan, Overseas Domestic Worker Briefing, June 2011
23 Migrant domestic worker, cited at Kalayaan website [accessed via: www.kalayaan.org.uk (10/07/11)] 24 ‘Sahima’, in evidence to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Human Trafficking, September 2011