Phoebe Dimacali (Baker Street)
Born in the Philippines.
Phoebe Dimacali is the president of the Filipino Domestic Workers’ Association, an organisation set up in 2012 to support migrant domestic workers escaping abusive employers.
‘Last week a woman got a positive decision identifying her as a victim of trafficking, and with the letter was a notice telling her she had 14 days to leave the UK… They are very vulnerable and they need more time and support and need more time and support for this in deciding their future here in the UK, a place of their abuse but also of hope.’
Phoebe Dimacali*
Phoebe is a single mother with four children, who used to work as a clerk in the local municipality in the Philippines. She migrated to Saudi Arabia as a domestic worker because the income was insufficient to feed her children. While in Saudi Arabia, she wasn’t allowed to leave her employer’s house, not allowed to walk on the streets or talk to people, including other domestic workers within the home.
The family she was working for relocated to the UK, taking Phoebe with them as an employee. Before 1998, the UK government granted ‘concessions’ to domestic workers, meaning visas for domestic workers entering the UK were tied to their employers. Following a sustained campaign by trades unions and migrant groups, the Labour government introduced a system to allow domestic workers to change employers under an Overseas Domestic Workers visa.
Once in the UK, Phoebe’s employer refused to allow her to leave the house alone. They didn’t pay her for two months, fearing that she would try to run away. One day, while she was looking after the children in the park, she overheard two Filipino women talking. One was asking the other whether she was ok, and giving her a number. Phoebe wasn’t allowed to speak to anyone, and she feared the children would tell their mother if she did. While continuing to face toward the children, she asked whether they may be able to help her too. The women directed her to the public toilets, where they passed her a phone number. She contacted them and ran away two weeks later.
After escaping abuse and finding alternative employment, Phoebe joined the rescue operations in Hyde Park, slipping messages to Filipino women as they looked after children and alerting them to their rights. However, these activities stopped in 2012 after further changes to the UK visa system under the coalition government tied migrant domestic workers to their employers once again, leaving them vulnerable to serious abuse and at risk of becoming undocumented workers, should they attempt to leave.
The Filipino Domestic Workers’ Association (FDWA) was established soon after, in 2012. The Association began with weekly meetings at St John’s Church, Notting Hill. This later became a centre for the community in hosting a regular mass in the Filipino language. Phoebe and the wider group turned their attention to supporting domestic workers escaping abuse to navigate the UK immigration system. The Home Office encourages victims of human trafficking to enter the National Referral System, but many of the women supported by FDWA feared that entering the system would lead to them being deported to the Philippines. Through their direct assistance and campaigning, the FDWA has supported women to leave abusive employers. Some of their successful cases have involved women who were denied food, subjected to sexual abuse, and threatened with murder. Once recognised as victims of trafficking, the women are allowed access to NHS healthcare.
The FDWA also runs workshops to educate migrant domestic workers about their rights. Their ongoing campaign seeks to ask the government to ratify the International Labour Organization 189, to grant important rights to domestic workers, and protect them from abuse and exploitation.
Sources
Grant, H. ‘Domestic workers abused in the UK: “She took the iron and pressed it on my hand”’, The Guardian, 11 Jan 2016. Accessed 20 January 2022. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/jan/11/domestic-workers-abused-uk-london-gulf-state-employers-iron-pressed-my-hand *The quote above is from this source.
Meigh, A. ‘The Victimisation of Filipino Domestic Workers in the United Kingdom and Singapore’, (Masters Dissertation) Leiden University. March 2019. Accessed 20 January 2022. https://studenttheses.universiteitleiden.nl/access/item%3A2630363/view
Stephens, K. ‘Filipino Domestic Workers Association Interview’, daikon, issue 5, Summer 2018. Accessed 20 January 2022. https://issuu.com/daikonzine/docs/summer-migration/s/8384
Waldron, D. and Ali Sanwar. ‘UK Domestic Worker Visa Policy Causing increase in Foreign Maid Abuse’, workpermit.com, 4 Feb 2016. Accessed 20 January 2022. https://workpermit.com/news/uk-domestic-worker-visa-policy-causing-increase-foreign-maid-abuse-20160204