At home in the Philippines with next to no money and three children under the age of three, Marissa Begonias life was tough.
She watched other children begging for food in the street and decided she couldnt stand by as her babies did the same.
Marissa wanted a better life for her family and made the heartbreaking decision to leave her young children and become a domestic worker abroad.
But in her quest to bring her family out of poverty she discovered – like thousands of other foreign workers in similar positions – she would be exploited and abused by the wealthy families she worked for.
In the worst case, her employer would strip naked, lay down in his bed and call Marissa in demanding a massage.
The son helping his mother appeal her murder conviction for killing his dad
I was terrified, I was very very scared, but at the same time I was angry, she told Metro.co.uk.
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As domestic workers, sometimes we are obliged to do things we know are not right, but we have to do it because we are afraid that our children will starve.
I needed to be paid for my children. This man owned me. He could do anything he wanted to me.
Marissa said she hid knives in her underwear to protect herself if he attempted to rape her.
She said: It got to a point one day where I was looking around this mans home and thinking “can I escape out of the window?” If I jumped, its too high.
If I screamed, no one would hear me.
Instead, she had no choice but to go along with her employers demands, but in desperation one day she attempted to attack him.
I told him “this is the best massage” and I karate chopped him, Marissa said. I thought “this is it, I kill him or he rapes me”.
The next morning she resigned, holding a knife in her hand.
She said: He let me go, when he saw me with that knife. I managed to escape.
Marissa, like many women living in the Philipinnes, left her children to become a domestic worker first in Singapore, then Hong Kong and eventually London.
She said it was the hardest and most difficult decision I have ever made.
When she was offered work with a family in the UK it meant she could finally be reunited with her children and bring them with her.
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She was offered a salary of £700 a month, but when she got to London on a tied visa with her employers, she was told money would be deducted for rent, national insurance and tax.
In the end she had just £300 a month to feed and clothe her children and herself.
Marissa said: I was naive before coming and had no idea how expensive the cost of living would be. There was nowhere near enough money.
When I came here I was adamant I wanted my children with me – I thought I could care for them better than anyone else, if they were with me I could look after them.
At that point I was totally reliant on the people I was working for.
Marissas life changed when she got her own visa and started working for a family that treated her properly.
She later became a campaigner for workers rights, helping to set up the Voice of Domestic Workers (VDW) in 2009, an education and support group calling for justice and rights for Britains sixteen thousand migrant workers.
It provides English language lessons, legal and employment advice as well as a rescue service, helping domestic workers escape from abusive employers.
So far this year, Marissa said she has saved 80 women, some who were regularly raped, some paid no salary at all, others who were beaten and even women who were not called by their names but referred to as animals.
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Marissa and the VDW has given oral and written evidence to the current government review of the modern slavery act, in the hope they can improve the National Referral Mechanism of Trafficking Law.
The mechanism is a framework for identifying the victims of human trafficking or modern slavery and ensuring they receive the appropriate support.
But Marissa argues it doesnt truly protect migrant domestic workers because they need to prove abuse before they access any support.
She also argues the UKs tied visa policy introduced in 2012 – where domestic workers transported to the UK are legally tied to their employer and are unable to change jobs while in the country – is leaving women open to abuse and effectively traps them in domestic slavery.
Victims of abuse dont come forward through fear they will be deported instead of protected, Marissa said.
To find out more about the Voice of Domestic Workers, visit the website here.
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