What is Domestic Servitude?

Over the last two years, there has been a specific increase in reports of domestic servitude within Yorkshire, indicating women from Pakistan and Bangladesh are being brought to the UK and exploited in domestic homes. As well as English, the animation has therefore been translated into Urdu, Punjabi and Bengali with subtitles.

The real-life story of a survivor of domestic servitude has become the inspiration behind of a new online animation aimed at the communities of West Yorkshire.

It highlights the signs, raises awareness and encourages reporting of this hidden crime. Domestic servitude typically involves victims working in a private family home where they are ill-treated, humiliated, subjected to unbearable conditions or working hours and made to work for little or no pay.

The team from the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, Hope for Justice, the Modern Slavery Organised Immigration Crime Programme and West Yorkshire Police have collaborated with Yorkshire based Fettle Animation to develop the content, which follows the journey of a young woman moving from her home country to the UK.

The new animation covers an anonymised real-life story of a survivor of domestic servitude which follows the journey of a young woman moving from her home country to the UK.

Bengali https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4ybZFT7E7A

Punjabi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJ1IOk4uc54

Urdu https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jawr8UrOLXU