Reporting for this project was supported by a grant from the Pulitzer Center.
For 12 years, Malaya*, a Filipino domestic worker, felt like her life was dictated by updates in the legal case against her former employer, an Emirati diplomat. She was working for the foreign envoy in the UAE before moving to London with him and his family in 2013.
Court documents indicate that Malaya was held captive for 89 days in what were described as slave-like conditions. Once she escaped, filing the case resulted in this – Malaya faced years of bureaucratic delays and dismissals because her employer was protected by diplomatic hard immunity.
Earlier this year, a UK court ordered the UAE government to pay Malaya £270,000 (€312,290, $362,440) for false imprisonment, unpaid wages and post-traumatic stress disorder.
“I really want to shout to the whole world that we did it. That’s me. I never give up. I can say this is a victory,” a tearful Malaya told DW.
“We need to keep fighting, because I’m not just fighting for myself, but for everyone. I don’t want anyone to have the same horrible experience,” she said.
The UAE Embassy in London did not respond to an email requesting comment.
Courts impose limits on diplomatic immunity
The Malaya case is one of a number of other cases indicating wider legal change on diplomatic immunity. In 2022, UK courts ruled that diplomats could not invoke the immunity in cases involving modern slavery or trafficking, while a 2025 Swiss decision opened the door to investigating claims of domestic worker exploitation as regular employer-employee labor disputes.
“There is a clear hope for justice for all these vulnerable staff, without whom diplomats, freed from the tasks of daily life, would not be able to carry out their missions.” Mirella Falco, head of the SIT staff union in Geneva, told DW.
Cora Espanto and her two children worked for a Saudi diplomat in the Netherlands in 2012. After a carefully planned escape in the early morning, Espanto learns that she cannot sue him due to the immunity of her diplomatic employer.
Espanto is now a cultural arbiter Fairwork, an Amsterdam-based rights group. She is assisting other migrant workers facing abuse, many of whom are exploited by diplomats.
“The problem of ill-treatment of diplomats remains. There should be more court decisions indicating that diplomatic immunity does not apply – especially in cases of domestic workers,” Espanto told DW.
Evildoers hiding behind Vienna Convention
Diplomatic immunity, a legal protection granted to foreign envoys under the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, is intended to protect diplomats from civil and criminal prosecution for carrying out their duties. However, some diplomats have used the loophole to avoid prosecution altogether.
A 2023 global investigation by Philippine news outlet Rappler revealed the extent of the problem. Compiled open-source documents and interviews with domestic workers show that more than 200 domestic workers in 18 different countries had filed complaints against 160 diplomats from 1988 to 2021. Most cases were dismissed due to diplomatic immunity.
This legal hurdle comes on top of the general quagmire that millions of domestic workers are forced to navigate. According to an estimate by the International Labor Organization, there are More than 75 million people work as domestic servants All over the world. About 81% are informally employed and thus excluded from workplace standards on minimum wages and protection against sexual harassment. ILO Domestic Workers Convention, No. 189 Establishes international standards for the inclusion of domestic workers in labor laws and regulations.
Positive signs from Europe, Latin America
Claire Hobden, technical expert on domestic workers at the ILO, told DW that more countries have now introduced legal protections for domestic workers on wages, working hours and benefits. However, implementation of these measures has been uneven, and many informal workers remain in the legal gray zone.
While regions such as Latin America and parts of Europe have shown progress, legal exclusion remains common in Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Arab countries.
Violence, harassment and occupational health and safety risks all remain major concerns, Hobden said.
Philippine ambassador abused Filipino maid
Still, many see recent court decisions and legal changes as cause for hope.
“The court’s decisions reaffirm the equality of treatment and equal application of labor laws to all workers, including domestic workers — local or migrant,” Ellen Sana, executive director of the Center for Migrant Advocacy in Manila, told DW. “Our hope is that other countries will follow suit and clearly define the limits of diplomatic immunity, particularly when they employ domestic workers in their own homes.”
The Philippines is a major source of migrant workers, especially domestic helpers and nurses, for many countries around the world.
SANA has urged Manila to engage foreign countries and promote expatriate rights, and has also called on the Philippines to police its own diplomatic ranks. In 2021, a video showing then-Philippine Ambassador to Brazil Marichu Mauro physically abusing his 51-year-old Filipino housekeeper went viral. Mauro was dismissed from public office.
Sana said, “How can the Philippines be a gold standard for protecting migrant workers if those in duty have the courage to mistreat us? The rules for them as diplomats should be more stringent based on evidence and investigation reports.”
*Name changed to protect privacy
Edited by: Darko Janjevic