Kalayaan campaign to win rights and build protection

Kalayaan’s Campaign to win the right for diplomatic MDWs to change employers and build on protection for other MDW

We are campaigning for the proposed changes for MDWs to be amended in order to maintain

their existing protection. We have had cross party support for the EDM 860 tabled by Christine

McCafferty MP calling for the maintenance of existing rights, together with positive media

coverage on the issue in The Guardian, the Independent, Time Out, The BBC and Radio 4’s

Today programme.

Kalayaan, together with Oxfam, Unite (previously the Transport and General Workers’ Union), the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Anti-Slavery International, Amnesty International UK, and others, are calling for the proposed changes to the domestic worker visa to be dropped and for the current system to be retained.

The best solution to the plight of MDWs is to protect them in law, so that they can escape abusive situations if need be.

Kalayaan therefore suggests that domestic workers should remain outside of the new PBS for immigration to the UK. They should retain their existing rights as workers with the ability to change employers within the sector. They should be supported in accessing these rights. First and foremost, more information must be disseminated among MDWs themselves and the groups with which they are involved whilst in the UK.