Exploitation of Filipino domestic workers ‘widespread’ in the US, new report shows
- The highest number of labour trafficking cases reported to the National Human Trafficking Hotline in the US involved domestic workers
- Most of the victims who sought help were from the Philippines, with domestic workers from India and Indonesia also on the top 10 most vulnerable in America
But after being hired by a family of four in New York City, she quickly found her experience to be very different from what she had imagined.
Working 16-hour days, Anna performed endless chores: cleaning, laundry, preparing family meals and tending to the children’s needs. She spent what few hours she had to rest on a small mattress on the floor, placed between the children’s beds.
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The study, titled Human Trafficking at Home, found that of all labour trafficking cases – around 8,000 – reported from December 2007 to December 2017 to the national hotline, nearly a quarter, or 1,211 individual cases, involved domestic work.
About half of these workers who sought help were trafficked by their own employers.
The report, released at the end of July, showed most victims were female adults originally from other countries, including the Philippines – 100 workers – followed by Mexico (60), the US (33), India (21) and Colombia (20). There were also 11 from Indonesia.
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The recent Polaris study said the fact many of these exploited workers were immigrants did not come as a surprise.
“Many countries export labour to boost their national economy with the repatriation of funds to the home country from their nationals employed abroad,” the report said.
“Although these countries should have a vested interest in protecting their citizens against human trafficking, they may be conflicted about what their priority should be – ensuring that their citizens have money to send back home regardless of the conditions under which they work, or making sure that their citizens are working with credible employers only, even if this means a reduction in income,” it said.
A majority of the victims identified in the domestic work industry – 93 per cent – were forced to provide only labour services, the report said. However, the victims in the remaining cases were also forced to engage in commercial sex with their trafficker or other partners.
WEAK LEGAL PROTECTIONS
The numbers available only portray a fraction of the problem, as many victims are too afraid or have no means to come forward.
Most employer-traffickers control domestic workers by withholding their earnings, misrepresenting the job, making them work excessive hours and subjecting them to emotional abuse.
“The fact that domestic workers make up the greatest percentage of labour trafficking cases recorded by the national hotline can be attributed in part to this workforce’s near total lack of interim legal options – ways to get justice, get back pay or otherwise get help before a situation becomes intolerable or escalates into trafficking,” the report said.
Domestic workers have been “explicitly excluded from some labour protections and de facto left out of others”, which has not only practical implications, but has also shaped the way they are perceived by employers, the study said.
Apart from the lack of protections under US law, the report said “the system by which many domestic workers from foreign countries enter the United States is so poorly designed that it could arguably be said to encourage exploitation and trafficking”.
Social services that provide help specifically for this population are also “relatively few and far between”, and language barrier is sometimes a problem.
SOME IMPROVEMENTS
Some measures have been taken in recent years that increase the protection of these workers in the US. Last year, the Department of State introduced additional requirements that make it more difficult for “A-3/G-5 domestic workers” – those who work for diplomats and employees of international organisations – to become labour trafficking victims.
These new requirements include better health coverage for the domestic worker, and tougher consequences for employers under investigation for abuse or exploitation of domestic workers.
The US government also interviews every recipient of an A-3 or G-5 visa to identify abuse and gives each domestic worker an identity card.
Separately, the World Bank recently introduced a new policy, which requires staff members to process their domestic workers’ salary through a designated third-party company, to ensure there is a record of wages paid.
A spokesman for the Embassy of the Philippines in Washington, DC told the Post it has provided “comprehensive help” to all Filipino nationals who are trafficking victims.
“The Philippine government’s efforts to combat trafficking, including labour trafficking, have been relentless and consistent,” he said, referring to multiple bilateral labour agreements and the work that has been done by the Inter-Agency Council against Trafficking.
The spokesman noted that there are Philippine consulates in seven other locations in the US besides the embassy in Washington.
He also said a Philippine Overseas Labour Office is expected to open on August 15 in Los Angeles “to provide additional support and services to Filipinos in the West Coast”.
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“Domestic workers do the work that makes all work possible,” said Ai-jen Poo, director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance. “Yet they work in a ‘wild west’ environment where working conditions are based on the goodwill of their employer rather than a set standard. This creates a breeding ground for exploitation, including labour trafficking.”
Advocates mention as top priorities the approval of a federal domestic workers bill of rights, as well as the need to overhaul the temporary work visas in the US.
“It is long past time to recognise that caring for our loved ones and our homes is real, vital work,” said Lillian Agbeyegbe, Polaris’s learning and impact manager and the report’s author.
“The people who do it deserve fair wages, decent working hours and the legal protections that can keep them from being trafficked.”
