Modern Enslavement of Migrant Domestic Workers by Foreign Diplomats in the United States

Modern-day slavery flourishes in the United States as well as abroad.

Foreign diplomats — supposedly the ambassadors of goodwill and international diplomacy — are enslaving, exploiting, and abusing domestic workers, and getting away with it.

These women have had the courage to speak out against these abuses, but none has achieved any form of redress on account of diplomatic immunity. The United States government has failed to ensure these women any remedy for their enslavement.

Raziah Begum "They treated me no better than they would treat a stray dog. They tried to take from me my humanity."

Lucia Mabel Gonzales Paredes "In response to my demand for a decent wage, my employers threatened to get me a plane ticket back home."

Otilia Luz Huayta "Worst of all, it was people from my own country who had treated my daughter and I like slaves."

Siti Rina Aisah "We are human too, and we deserve to work with dignity and respect."

Current law in the United States grants foreign diplomats immunity from civil actions and criminal prosecution under U.S. law. Diplomatic immunity bars domestic workers from claiming their legal rights in court and, as a result, gives diplomats a free pass to mistreat domestic workers deliberately and without penalty.

Domestic workers — who are most often women from poor countries — are led to believe that, in coming to the United States to work for diplomats, they will have good jobs with benefits and they will enjoy the protection of U.S. laws. Instead, too often, domestic workers find themselves in abusive, slave-like conditions and discover that their so-called rights are unenforceable.

The ACLU, together with coaltion partners Global Rights, CASA of Maryland, Andolan, Break the Chain Campaign, and the Immigration/ Human Rights Clinic of the University of North Carolina School of Law, is working on several fronts to fight this problem and provide a means for these workers to seek redress. The efforts include litigation (Sabbithi, et al. v. Al Saleh, et al.), federal legislative advocacy (Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008), and the filing of a petition before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). The IACHR is an autonomous organ of the Organization of American States with a mandate to promote and protect human rights in the Americas.