KU student stands up for migrant domestic workers
A politics student from Kingston University has collaborated with a campaigning group in an effort to improve the rights of migrant domestic workers in the UK.
Gabriela Maldonado, a Venezuelan student at Kingston University, decided to work along with The Voice of Domestic Workers in a project which consists in identifying loopholes in laws and how it leads to human trafficking and modern slavery.
The Voice of Domestic Workers is a self-help grass-roots organisation established in 2009 with their mission being to end discrimination and protect migrant domestic workers living in the UK.
Gabriela’s interest in the organisation started when the leader of the campaign, Marissa Begonia, came to talk to her class.
“I was very moved by the story of the guest speaker. She was a migrant domestic worker herself and was sexually harassed and abused by her boss. There are many cases like that happening in the world right now, so working on this project would be a way to actually have an impact on a real-life policy,” Maldonado said.
Gabriela’s role in this project is to identify potential loopholes in the British law and how they lead to human trafficking, discrimination and poverty for migrant domestic workers as well as finding possible solutions to the problem.
She said: “These people are already working at a minimum wage, and most of their salary is taken. Their families provide for them, but it doesn’t give them any actual economic freedom, and that’s a problem that needs to be tackled.”
The main goal of the project is to write a manifesto so that the parliament is aware and can tackle this issue. The organisation has currently one MP on their side and aims to send in their manifesto by this summer.
“They recognise that there are a lot of laws that need to be implemented, and I really don’t think that any one will protect something as horrific as modern slavery, so we’re quite positive the parliament will act,” Maldonado said.
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