Dispatches

Britain's Secret Slaves (2010x21)

: 30, 2010

Over 15,000 domestic workers leave their families to come to Britain every year. Charities claim that many are not only badly treated but that they are living as slaves. This report investigates the plight of overseas domestic workers brought to the UK, and enslaved behind closed doors by rich and powerful employers in the upper levels of British society. Dispatches goes undercover as some of the employers accused of modern-day slavery are confronted on camera about how they have treated their workers. Many workers make the sacrifice to leave their country for the UK in order to better provide for their families back home. But lobby groups and charities communicate that a worrying proportion of domestic workers have their passports taken away from them, are kept locked up and subjected to sexual, physical and psychological abuse. Many are paid less than £50 a week for 20 hour days and some wages are withheld completely. Even children face similar horrendous conditions; the filmmakers meet young people who were trafficked over to the UK as children and endured years of violence and forced labour. The programme also investigates claims that foreign diplomats are among the worst offenders in this flourishing form of modern slavery.