The story of one domestic worker, Mende Nazer, has inspired a Channel 4 drama, which will be shown this month. I Am Slave follows Malia, a young girl trafficked from Sudan to the UK, where her rich employers refused to allow her to leave the house and pay her nothing. Desperate to escape, she had to put her trust in a passing stranger to help her get away.
The Guardian has also featured a story about Frances, an African woman whose employer threw her out on the street when she asked for a day off.She said that I should leave straight away," Frances recalled. "She threw all my things into the road, but kept my passport, bank card and national insurance card."
She had been working from 7am to 1am, seven days a week, for a wage of just £250 a month, money that was desperately needed to educate her two siblings back home. Terrified and alone, all she could do after being thrown out of the house was to sit in the street, waiting for her employer to change her mind.
