The United Arab Emirates must pay more than £260,000 to a victim of human trafficking who was exploited by one of its diplomats in London, the high court has ruled.
Lawyers representing the woman said it was unprecedented for a court to order a foreign state to pay for domestic servitude by a diplomat on UK soil.
The 35-year-old woman of Filipino heritage went to work for the diplomat Salem Mohammed Sultan Aljaberi and his family in 2012 when they were living in the UAE.
In February 2013 she was taken to London with them and in what the high court judge Mr Justice Lavender described as a “case of modern slavery” was locked in their home for 89 days before escaping after the family left the door unlocked.
The family did not permit her to leave the flat alone while she was with them and when they were away she was locked in. The judge calculated she worked an average of more than 17 hours a day, she was expected to care for the children and provide other domestic services and was not given rest days, lunch breaks or days off.
According to the judgment she was fed “inadequately” and was subject to “verbal abuse and threats”. The family withheld her passport, she was denied internet access in the flat and not given a UK sim card for the first few months. The woman had no family, friends or support network in the UK.
While she received some money during her time with the family, it was significantly below the minimum wage at the time – just £400 for the 12 weeks she was with the family in London before she escaped.
In November 2014, the Home Office recognised that she was a victim of human trafficking. The UAE government did not attend court for the case. In December 2015 she was granted leave to remain in the UK.
A total of £262,292.76 was awarded to her in damages for false imprisonment, injury to feelings and personal injury due to a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of her experience with the family. The court was told that due to her experience with the family, she could not trust any employer and was in constant fear of being subjected to the same treatment she received from the Aljaberi family if she was re-employed.
The judge said that part of the damages he was awarding were “exemplary” damages, which are punitive rather than compensatory. He said: “I accept that such an award is appropriate in a case in which Mr Aljaberi acted with a cynical disregard for the claimant’s rights and exploited the claimant for his own financial advantage.”
He said that he had awarded the damages due to the “wrongfulness of Mr Aljaberi’s conduct”. He added that withholding of her wages was “part of the servitude which was inflicted on her”.
Her solicitor, Zubier Yazdani of Deighton Pierce Glynn, said: “This is a welcome decision. It goes some way to providing accountability for the harm that my client suffered. Domestic workers in diplomatic households have been vulnerable to abuse for too long. Sending states should share responsibility where their diplomats exploit domestic workers.”
The UAE embassy was approached for comment.
