Abuse of Migrant Domestic Workers

Abuse of Migrant Domestic Workers
Name
Institution
Abuse of Migrant Domestic Workers
With the days of slavery in the past and no more forced labor, the working relationships between employees and their bosses are now better. Workers have rights to good working conditions, and those rights are not only under the protection of by international laws but also the individual constitution of countries all over the world. However, despite the progress made in recent decades, there are cases of employee abuse, mainly migrant domestic workers. For example, an investigation by the Guardian revealed that the working conditions for foreign maids, cleaners, and other domestic workers in Qatar are slave-like (Rebecca, 2014).
All over the world, millions of women and girls take up domestic work to provide for themselves and their families. Majority of them have very little education, and domestic work is one of the few options available. One issue that raises concern is the systematic way in which governments deny them crucial labor protections enjoyed by other workers and exposing them to mistreatment and violence ((Rebecca, 2014)).
The abuse of domestic workers takes place in private homes and away from the public. In recent years, especially with the onset of social media, the attention to their plight is increasing. Employers and labor agents commit various abuses that include physical, psychological and sexual abuse; being locked up in the workplaces; non-payment of wages; no rest days and long working hours (some are reported to work up to 20hrs a day without rest) (Islam & Cojocaru, 2016). In the most severe cases, women and girls get trapped in forced labor, or human traffickers put them in forced domestic work with conditions similar to slavery.
Unfortunately, concerted efforts by the governments do not match the increased awareness. There are just a few places where the domestic workers have equal protection with the other workers under the labor laws; Hong Kong is one of them (Islam & Cojocaru, 2016). Usually, governments exclude domestic workers from labor laws or establish weak and poorly enforced regulations that allow employers to exploit them by long, excruciating working hours under meager salaries.
The total number of women and girls working as domestic workers is hard to estimate as there are two limiting factors. First, the majority of governments categorize domestic work as “informal” and therefore not covered by regulations. Secondly, domestic workers are unregistered, uncounted and invisible as they work hidden in private households. Despite the challenges, the International Labour Organization (ILO) continues to conduct studies to determine the national estimates and the extent of child domestic labor. In 2010, the estimated numbers of domestic workers in the world were 52.6 million with 17-25 million being migrant domestic workers; and 15 million being child domestic workers (Islam & Cojocaru, 2016). Also, domestic work has more child workers than any other category of child labor.
Women migrants comprise nearly half of the estimated 200 million migrants globally; with the number exponentially increasing as from three decades ago (Islam et al., 2016) An essential part of this ...