Domestic Workers in Hong Kong ask for changes on the International Workers' Day. IDWF/Flickr. (CC 2.0 by-nc-nd)
It is commonly understood in debates on trafficking or forced labour that the illegality and irregularity of domestic work, plus the absence of regulation, is what generates the vulnerability to exploitation characterising life for workers in this sector. In their contribution to Beyond Trafficking and Slavery, Anna Triandafyllidou and Sabrina Marchetti argue that “unintentional exploitation” by employers occurs “when clear and practical regulation of the sector is missing”. If workers are given formal status in a legal and regulated industry, they suggest, their vulnerability to exploitation will be reduced or even eliminated.
Being required to live with their employers exposes domestic workers to the need to ‘consent’ to their own exploitation.
