A House of Labour Built without Rights; After the UN’s June call to protect migrant domestic workers, will anyone finally act?
“They provide food, but I am only allowed to eat their leftovers. There have been days when I did not get any food. I am not allowed to cook food for myself.” – Ndanu, a Kenyan domestic worker in Saudi Arabia
Migrant domestic labour is essential at every level of society worldwide — to both families and economies. These workers themselves, however, especially those who have moved countries to take up caregiving or housekeeping, are some of the most exploited and least protected in the global economy.
In June, the United Nations agency the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, issued a long-overdue but important call urging states to guarantee decent work for migrant domestic workers, citing their systemic exclusion from labour protections and the growing prevalence of abuse. Equidem’s briefing paper Shattered Dreams, Hidden Trauma, released just weeks earlier, provides critical empirical grounding for these concerns.
Based on 67 interviews with domestic workers and nurses from Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda employed in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the report documents harrowing and widespread abuses, including sexual violence, forced labour, and racial discrimination.
The disturbing consistency of these violations across time and borders makes clear that piecemeal reforms are not enough.
The June 2025 UN statement must serve as a rallying cry for governments, employers, investors, and global institutions to act together, and act now, to transform care work from a site of abuse into one of dignity and protection.
Systemic Exclusion: A Global Governance Gap Creates Violent Workplaces
Over 75 million domestic workers around the world are employed in private households. Eighty percent of them are women, and many are international migrants. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates that more than 81 percent of these workers fall into the informal employment category. This accounts for more than 61 million domestic workers globally. Only one in five domestic workers has adequate employment-related social security coverage. The rest are excluded from basic protections such as minimum wage laws, limits on working hours, and occupational safety measures.
In a report to the UN Human Rights Council released last month, stated Siobhán Mullally, UN Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, stated:
“Racism and gender inequality create a climate of impunity where the rights of migrant domestic workers are violated with impunity. The victims are mostly women who are offered seemingly promising jobs by unscrupulous recruiters in their countries of origin or residence. Upon arrival at their place of work, they find that the conditions differ significantly from those outlined in the labour contract they were originally promised.”
Equidem’s investigation of the domestic workers in Saudi Arabia and nurses in the UAE revealed widespread instances of gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH), contravening the standards outlined in the ILO Violence and Harassment Convention, 2019 (No. 190). The Convention affirms that all workers, regardless of sector, have the right to a workplace free from violence and abuse, including those rooted in gender. That convention is violated millions of times, around the world, every day. The consequences are dire.
A Kenyan domestic worker in Saudi Arabia told Equidem researchers:
“I was very mad, so I insisted on my salary. His brother came and slapped me. I fell because I was weak, he tore my clothes, lied me on the floor and my employer sodomised me while his brother pinned me down. After my employer was done, his brother continued. It was very painful. The more I resisted, the more they were beating me so hard, so I had to give in and cooperate. They did not use any protection. I was so ashamed.”
Equidem’s investigation further documented entrenched racial hierarchies within workplaces, and consistent reports of physical, psychological, and economic harm experienced by workers. For example, researchers found that 10 out of 11 ILO indicators of forced labour were present in these workplaces including restriction of movement, deception, intimidation, and withholding of identity documents.
Gender, Climate Change, and Discrimination: A Perfect Storm
Equidem documented overlapping vulnerabilities in its investigation—gender-based violence, displacement driven by climate crisis, and systemic racial bias—intersect to exacerbate the risk and impact of abuse for migrant domestic workers and nurses from East Africa.
Equidem recorded pervasive sexual and physical abuse experienced by East African care workers in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, violating their rights under ILO Convention 190. The report records multiple ILO‑defined GBVH indicators—such as hitting, rape, verbal abuse, isolation, and threats—undermining the safety and dignity of these workers.
Over 57 percent of interviewed workers migrated after experiencing climate-induced disruptions to agriculture, livelihoods, and local economies in East Africa. These conditions compel women to seek work abroad, often through informal and unregulated channels, increasing their exposure to exploitation.
East African domestic workers interviewed by Equidem reported being subjected to racial discrimination at work, including unequal pay, verbal abuse, and harsher conditions than workers from other regions. Employers often held degrading stereotypes about African women, reinforcing patterns of exploitation and exclusion.
Forced Labour: Exploitation Grows in Lawlessness
Labour conditions in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, as documented by Equidem, meet multiple ILO indicators of forced labour. Workers faced deception during recruitment, restriction of movement, confiscation of identity documents, threats, and physical and sexual violence. Domestic workers, in particular, reported being denied wages for months, forced to work excessive hours without rest, and unable to leave the household without permission. Despite policy reforms in both countries, domestic workers remain excluded from key protections—leaving employer control over legal status and mobility largely intact.
Unregulated recruitment processes create chains of exploitation
Opaque, informal recruitment processes are a critical contributing factor to forced labour and exploitation, our work found. Equidem’s findings show that a significant proportion of migrant workers rely on informal or unregulated networks during some part of their migration journey. Among the 67 domestic workers and nurses interviewed, 55 percent reported using informal intermediaries, particularly those with limited formal education or professional qualifications.
These private networks increase the risk of deception, contract substitution, and coercion. In many cases, workers were promised jobs in hospitality or cleaning but were instead placed in private households as live-in domestic workers, often without pay or legal contracts. One interviewee noted being recruited as a waitress but ended up performing full-time care work with no days off.
Debt and dependency are severe. Around 33 percent of workers reported paying recruitment fees, while over half had to borrow money, typically from community lenders or recruitment agents, to secure employment abroad. Some workers have to take salary advances from employers, anf all of this creates a cycle of debt bondage, significantly restricting their ability to leave exploitative situations.
Gaps in oversight from origin states compound this economic vulnerability. Many migrant workers interviewed left through unregistered channels, making them difficult to trace when they encounter abuse.
These findings underscore the urgent need for greater monitoring of recruitment practices, both at the national and bilateral levels, and for stronger protections against debt-based coercion that increases the risk of forced labour.
The Kafala Trap
In Gulf states, the kafala sponsorship system continues to tie a migrant worker’s legal status to their employer. Workers remain constrained by systems that limit their ability to change employers, leave abusive environments, or return to their home countries without the approval of their sponsor. While recent labour reforms have been introduced in both Saudi Arabia and the UAE, they either exclude domestic workers or fall short of eliminating employer dependency. In Saudi Arabia, for instance, the 2021 reform that removed the No Objection Certificate (NOC) requirement for job transfers does not apply to domestic workers, leaving them outside the scope of these protections. This creates conditions of forced labour, as defined by ILO indicators.
Adiba, a Ugandan nurse in the UAE, described the impact of employer control over mobility:
“They will make it difficult for me to leave the job. They will ban my visa and ask me to pay them for the visa. It would also be very difficult to leave as I am not directly hired by the employer. I am hired by the contractor.”
From Diagnosis to Reform: Five Urgent Policy Shifts
While the UN calls for states to ratify and implement ILO Convention 189 on decent work for domestic workers, the following policy actions are critical:
1. Extend Labour Protections to Domestic Workers
Domestic workers must be fully covered under national labour laws, with guaranteed access to minimum wage, paid sick leave, regulated working hours, and the right to raise complaints without risking their employment.
2. Strengthen Accountability in Recruitment
Recruitment agencies should be strictly licensed and independently monitored. Clear penalties must apply for illegal fees, deception, and contract substitution. Transparent public registries of violators can help workers avoid abuse.
3. Ensure Safe and Accessible Grievance Mechanisms
Complaint systems must be trauma-informed, multilingual, and accessible regardless of a worker’s legal status. Governments should fund independent hotlines and mobile outreach teams to respond quickly to abuse.
4. Support Worker Representation
Migrant domestic workers should have the right to freely associate, organise, and participate in unions. Worker representation is essential to ending isolation and abuse in private households.
5. Reform Sponsorship Systems
In line with international standards, states should move away from employer-tied visa systems that restrict mobility. While recent reforms have occurred, domestic workers remain excluded and vulnerable to retaliation. Ensuring mobility rights is key to preventing forced labour.
For a full list of Equidem’s recommendations, please refer to our report: Shattered Dreams, Hidden Trauma.
From Commitments to Enforcement
The UN’s call must not be treated as another press release. It must be the turning point. The next crucial step is for policymakers to convert commitments into enforceable, rights-based legal protections.
Accountability mechanisms remain weak, and governments, institutions, and employers have both the mandate and the evidence to strengthen protections now. Anything less than full rights and real enforcement is a continuation of harm.
Equidem will continue to monitor, document, and advocate for transformative change within the global care economy.
This blog was written by Vipitha Vijayan, researcher at Equidem
