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Dr Masimba Mavaza

Voluntary slavery, in theory, is the condition of slavery entered into at a point of voluntary consent.

It is distinguished from involuntary slavery where an individual is forced to a period of servitude usually as punishment for a crime. In the life which is defined by money people do everything to get the money.

Oftentimes, decisions made are so wrong that the person becomes aware of the fact that there was an available option with a lower opportunity cost — the past self-made a bad decision, forcing the future self to deal with the consequences.

Historians of slavery are very aware that enslavement in the past took a number of forms. One of the more unexpected of these for us today is voluntary enslavement, which presents us with something of a conundrum. We imagine slavery as the most extreme form of legal coercion, and so find it difficult to imagine anyone would enter of their own choice.

Yet agreeing to enslavement in return for the means to survive is a well-known practice across many societies and mainly in the diaspora where your life cannot move without some voluntary labour.

Where agreements survive, we can see that there were some differences between voluntary enslavement and its more coercive chattel form, and the idea of contract itself is often cited as a way to distinguish between the two types.

Choosing to enter slavery voluntarily might mean that the conditions under which you served were more favourable, and your treatment was better. You may also have signed up for the option to exit unilaterally, that is, without the need for permission from your master. The way life works today, where money is mostly 97 percent debt-money, makes indentured slaves of us all.

The way the world works now is to use the banks to bind humanity in voluntary slavery which is the modern day slavery.

The large banks may extend new credit in exchange for our promise to repay. The more interest they rake in, the harder we have to work to service that debt.

Rising house prices mean more money created by the banks out of nothing and more enslavement of the populace as it labours to repay the banks’ mortgage, the landlord’s rent or face eviction.

We are shackled by this system.

People abandon their homelands only to plunge themselves into perpetual bondage — they become slaves of choice.

In search of wealth and better life, the roles and focus has changed.

Sometime back, people would strive to go to school have a better life. But now they only need a passport to get themselves in self-imposed exile in order to have a better life.

A passport becomes more important than an O Level certificate.

Most people who toil and suffer in slave-yards, politely called shifts in UK, have voluntarily offered themselves to such servitude.

But it does not have to be this way.

Money is a social construct. We can change money and change the world.

But unfortunately the circumstances have made people accept any condition of work and have been willing participants to slavery.

UK visa policy has ‘increased abuse’ of foreign maids; the visa system called ‘tied visas’ that restrict domestic workers to one employer and limit their stay in the UK have left women vulnerable to slavery and abuse.

The British government’s system of visa has exposed thousands of women brought to the UK by wealthy Gulf families to conditions of slavery, trafficking and abuse, according to a review of domestic worker visas.

Domestic workers transported to the UK are legally tied to their employers and are unable to change jobs while in the country.

The Home Office has faced a barrage of criticism that this “tied visa”, introduced in 2012, leaves workers unable to leave abusive employers, effectively trapping them in domestic slavery.

This assessment was endorsed by the celebrated barrister James Ewins in his research sponsored by the Home Office of the UK.

The review found “no evidence” that a tie to a single employer does anything other than increase the risk of abuse and therefore increases actual abuse’.

This is where people who are brought in as maids or household assistants are abused and denied pay.   They are scared to complain because they will have their visas cancelled and get deported.

The fear of going back home to face more economic hardships as well as the fear and embarrassment of societal backlash forces thousands to “submissions of convenience”.

As a result, people who migrated abroad for greener pastures found themselves in slavery of their choice.

A series of interviews with workers who suffered abuse in the UK highlighted a widespread fear that reporting abuse would result in deportation or arrest.

Even if you are not an illegal immigrant, you are forced to stick to one job because there are bills to pay and loans to settle.

There is a family to look after back home and those with you. The only option is to be a slave for the sake of the family.

A Zimbabwean woman died on the train after spending five months shuffling between jobs with no rest. On searching her, she was found with over £10 000 worth of unpaid pay forms.

Another domestic worker who was left without food by her employer and prevented from sleeping is fighting to stay in the UK after she was positively identified as a victim of trafficking.

Most people who are in these situations are trapped and cannot extricate themselves without help.  Campaigners said the review made it impossible for the government to deny that visa restrictions imposed on foreign workers create conditions under which abuse can flourish.

Workers are often treated like an extra piece of baggage by their employers.

The Home Office is yet to respond to the review’s recommendations, but a spokesman said: “This government is committed to stopping modern slavery in all its forms. We are working to ensure we provide all victims of modern slavery and trafficking with the protection and support they need through the national referral mechanism (NRM), (a government process set up to identify victims of trafficking). Anyone who reports being brought to the UK against his/her will for the purpose of work shall have his/her case considered under the NRM.”

Exploitation of migrant workers by unscrupulous UK employers is on the increase, the Government’s anti-slavery commissioner has reported.

A former Scotland Yard detective, Kevin Hyland, describes as “extremely shocking” the instances of exploitation he has witnessed in sectors such as agriculture, fisheries, hospitality and construction right across the country.

“We’re having to get society engaged to understand this — that this is happening in the 21st century of the United Kingdom,” he told the Financial Times.

An equally acute problem, which attracts less attention, is the employment abuse of Zimbabwean nationals, particularly those who are fully entitled to work in Britain.

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