A/HRC/39/52 upon termination of their original employment and if a visa extension of sufficient length is provided, allowing them to find an alternative employer. 44 V. Human rights violations and access to justice 40. Gender-based violence faced by domestic workers is often ignored or considered a personal problem, rather than a rights violation for which the employer is responsible. 45 Those risks and vulnerabilities are further aggravated for migrant domestic workers who are undocumented or in an irregular situation, not least because they often risk deportation if they contact the State authorities to seek protection from an abusive employer. 46 41. Not all migrant domestic workers face working and living conditions which amount to servitude. Owing to the informality of domestic work, there is insufficient data on migrant women in domestic servitude. However, domestic workers face some of the poorest working conditions across the care economy and are particularly vulnerable to exploitation.47 Their working conditions are the result of a set of labour market, migration and care policies, or the lack thereof. Depending on available and affordable alternatives, households may find it tempting to resort to the cheapest and easiest solutions for care on the market, which are commonly domestic workers.48 42. Frequently driven by poverty, domestic workers, including migrants, often find themselves forced to accept working and living conditions that violate their fundamental human rights. On that basis, many migrant domestic workers are exposed to multiple types of abuse, such as physical and social isolation; restriction of movement; psychological, physical and sexual violence; intimidation and threats; retention of identity documents by the employer; withholding of wages; abusive working and living conditions and excessive overtime. If one or more of these situations applies, ILO considers it to constitute forced labour.49 If those indicators of forced labour are combined with a lack of choice and strong control over their personal freedom, which many employers exercise, domestic workers may find themselves trapped in servitude, or even slavery. 43. A 2017 report on modern slavery indicates that the domestic work sector accounted for 24 per cent of forced labour exploitation and there were multiple means of coercion, including violence, experienced by domestic workers. 50 A forthcoming study conducted by ILO found that 72 per cent of returnees and Ethiopian migrant domestic workers in Arab States were characterized as victims of forced labour.51 44. Whether a migrant domestic worker is likely to be in forced labour depends largely on their debt burden, which many incur through recruitment fees. Workers with excessive debt were found to be six times more likely to be in forced labour than those without high debt, as they felt they had no choice but to keep working even in abusive conditions. 52 Workers often have to repay their debts for several months and sometimes years while recruitment fees are often directly deducted from their wages. This system creates a strong dependency on the employer and thus increases the risk of abuse and exploitation. 45. Highly abusive working and living conditions are prevalent in all geographic regions and by working in private homes migrant workers put their right to privacy and to security 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 10 Kalayaan and Anti-Slavery International, submission for the present report. Ibid. See Committee on Migrant Workers, general comment No. 1 (2011) on migrant domestic workers, para. 7. ILO, Care Work and Care Jobs for the Future of Decent Work (Geneva, 2018). Ibid. “ILO indicators of forced labour. Special action programme to combat forced labour” (Geneva, 2012). ILO, International Organization for Migration and Walk Free, “Global estimates of modern slavery: forced labour and forced marriage” (2017). ILO, “Improved labour migration governance to protect migrant workers and combat irregular migration in Ethiopia” (2018). Justice Centre Hong Kong, “Coming clean - an overview” (2016).