| Description |
Even though Greece counts as one of Europe’s four main trafficking hubs and even though migrant domestic workers have been arriving in the country since the late 70s, these two storylines somehow fail to meet. According to the official figures, trafficking of human beings (THB) for domestic work is practically non-existent in Greece; and labour trafficking in general, is just a recent phenomenon. Addressing demand for cheap and exploitable workers becomes then a theoretical question. Migrant domestic workers themselves, however, have a very different story to tell about how they entered and stayed in the country, under what terms they found their work, what the expectations are and why they cannot leave. In most cases, these are stories of false promises, long working hours, small salaries and fear of coming forward. Lifting these cases out of their invisibility and understanding what are the factors shaping the demand in the context of THB in the domestic work sector is an important necessary step to open the debate on trafficking in domestic work in Greece.
|
