That is a helpful clarification. I agree with the Minister that we have to tackle the root cause of the abuse. I simply think that we need to do both. I am not sure that the solutions that the Minister has suggested will be enough on their own. I wonder whether I could persuade the Minister, especially as Kalayaan is such a small organisation, to consider collecting more data on overseas domestic workers. We know that abuse exists, and it would be helpful in our debates to have more accurate tracking of what happens. It may be that only the Government have the resources to fund such research.
5.15 pm
One of the other protections that the Government introduced along with the tied visa was a provision that domestic workers had to have been with their employer for at least one year in the country from which they arrived. One of the issues here is what checks are in place to ensure that the domestic worker was not being abused in the country they have come from. In the past two weeks, Human Rights Watch has produced a report on migrant domestic workers in the United Arab Emirates, and it makes for extremely grim reading. Ministers argue that the new contracts will protect against this, but, given that many domestic workers do not speak English, will they even know what they are signing?
I accept that there was abuse under the old visa system, but the new visas introduced as part of a raft of measures in an attempt to look tough on immigration do not appear to have made the situation any better. Indeed, the evidence suggests that they have made things worse because they have left abused domestic workers with no means of escape. I urge the Government to take this opportunity to improve the protection for domestic workers, and if new clause 2 is pushed to a vote, I will support it.