On Anti-Slavery day – October 18th – we want to add our voice to raise awareness of the need to eradicate all forms of slavery, human trafficking and exploitation.
In the UK, Latin American women workers are affected by “in- work” poverty and remain concentrated in vulnerable, low-paid, over-exploitative, unregulated jobs. European data also indicates a much worse scenario, as Brazilians are one of the top five nationalities of trafficked victims in Europe.
Research by LAWRS showed that 57% of women experience verbal abuse and threats, 17% of them earn less than the national minimum wage and nearly 40% do not have a written contract.
“It is crucial that migrant women who experience extreme labour exploitation in outsourcing sectors like cleaning, catering and hospitality are recognised as victims regardless of the immigration status they hold. Establishing a firewall for safe reporting will ensure that labour enforcement and the police better identify vulnerabilities of insecure legal status used by traffickers and abusive employers,” says Nahir de la Silva, Policy and Communications Coordinator for Employment Rights at LAWRS.