UK court win for Saudi diplomat’s maid offers hope to modern slaves

LONDON: A landmark ruling by Britain’s highest court in favour of a Filipino domestic worker who alleges she was trafficked and treated like a slave by a Saudi diplomat could pave the way for other victims to seek justice, activists said on Wednesday.

Cherrylyn Reyes went to an employment tribunal in 2011, claiming her former employers, Jarallah Al-Malki and his wife, had subjected her to racial abuse, taken her passport, and paid less than the minimum wage.

The tribunal and the Court of Appeal refused to hear her claims because her employers had diplomatic immunity in Britain, which meant they could not be tried. Yet Britain’s Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that the employment tribunal should hear Reyes’ allegations of abuse as Al-Malki no longer had full diplomatic immunity after finishing his posting and leaving Britain in 2014."I know there are lots of other domestic workers who have suffered like me," Reyes said in a statement.

"I am delighted that they will be able to use this case to get redress." The allegations have not yet been examined, as the hearings so far have focused on whether the couple could claim immunity.

It the Supreme Court’s first ruling on a case involving a domestic worker, said Kalayaan, a charity campaigning to improve migrant domestic workers’ rights. "(This) represents a significant inroad into chipping away at the veil of immunity that has so far shielded diplomats who have trafficked their domestic workers," said Zubier Yazdani, a solicitor who represented Kalayaan and Reyes in the court case.