The overseas domestic worker visa, as currently configured, reinforces that imbalance. While workers have the right to change employer, this is limited to the time remaining on a six-month visa – often only a matter of weeks or even days. A right that exists only briefly is not a meaningful safeguard. Faced with the risk of losing their lawful status, many workers are unable to leave abusive situations. When leaving is not a realistic option, exploitation continues unchecked.
Too often, our system responds only once harm has escalated into modern slavery. In practice, meaningful protection is frequently triggered only when an individual is identified through the national referral mechanism – the UK’s framework for identifying and supporting potential victims. By that stage, significant harm has already occurred.
Prevention requires earlier action. Workers must be able to exercise basic freedoms – most importantly, the ability to leave an employer safely without jeopardising their immigration status or increasing their vulnerability. A credible preventative approach must be grounded in evidence, and listening to those with lived experience is critical. Overseas domestic workers have been consistent in their message for over a decade: restrictions on their status increase their vulnerability to coercion and control. Their voices point clearly to the changes needed.
Requiring notification when a worker changes employer would provide valuable insight into emerging risks and patterns of exploitation, enabling earlier intervention. Despite support from workers and practitioners, such proposals have not been adopted. This limits our ability to act on early warning signs and undermines efforts to prevent harm.
When in opposition, the Labour Party recognised the link between visa conditions and vulnerability to modern slavery, supporting reforms to restore greater autonomy to workers. In government, that position has shifted into delay. The current review of the overseas domestic worker visa is being conducted internally and is not expected to conclude until the end of 2026. Delay has consequences. It means continued exposure to risk and the persistence of preventable harm.
We must ensure that, in the design of any visa system, we do not increase the leverage available to abusive employers. Workers must have the agency to leave harmful situations before exploitation escalates into modern slavery.
This anniversary should be a turning point, not a moment of reflection alone. We know where the risks lie, how exploitation develops, and what changes would reduce harm. What is lacking is not evidence, but urgency. Without action, workers will continue to face preventable exploitation behind closed doors. Prevention must come before crisis – and the time to act is now.
Eleanor Lyons is the independent anti-slavery commissioner.
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