Vani Saraswathi on Migrant Domestic Workers

Many migrant workers are employed as domestic workers – as gardeners, cleaners, carers – relied upon increasingly by their household employers as government investment in education, elderly care, and other social services diminishes year on year. Their remittances are important for their home countries, and more importantly, for their families. They work with few rights, and companies, whose expatriate employees often recruit these workers, have felt constrained about whether and how they can intervene.

In this conversation, Vani Saraswathi of Migrant-Rights.org tells IHRB's Salil Tripathi why companies should be actively engaged with the workers' conditions, even if they are not their direct employers, and why they should take the responsibility seriously. She calls for the pressing need for improved national labour protections for domestic workers in the Gulf and globally, because their risks have increased dramatically due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with many of them out-of-work and stranded. She offers practical steps that can be taken to safeguard their rights.

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