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From an original article by Craig Barlow 31 August 2016 
 
Father and son Ioan Berlan, 47, and Reni Parczewski, 25, worked a pregnant woman as their house servant after offering her accommodation at a house in Tottenham, North London. Southwark Crown Court heard how the Polish woman was threatened with 'grave consequences' if she failed to keep the home spotless. The victim's statement described how she was treated as "a toy" by a 5 year-old child in the home. A neglected aspect of such cases is the impact upon children who are exposed to domestic servitude in addition to the direct victims. 
Domestic Servitude has some specific characteristics that set it apart from other forms of forced labour.The perpetrators are often singletons or a couple and the exploitation occurs within a family context. Facilitators may include intermediaries such as employment agencies, friends or family of the end user and / or the victim in the source country or destination country. Much of the logistics may well be co-ordinated by the end user. 
 
By nature it is often a form of exploitation that is occurring within a family home. As a consequence, a part of the forced labour may involve the victim undertaking duties to children such as basic care, cooking, school run etc. 

Relevance to Safeguarding Children 

Emotional abuse is the persistent emotional maltreatment of a child such as to cause severe and persistent adverse effects on the child’s emotional development. It may involve seeing or hearing the ill-treatment of another, causing children frequently to feel frightened or in danger, or the exploitation or corruption of children.. 
There is increasing evidence of the adverse long-term consequences for children’s development where they have been subject to sustained emotional abuse. It has an important impact on the development of the child’s mental health, behaviour and self-esteem. Emotional abuse can be especially damaging in infancy. Underlying emotional abuse may be as important, if not more so, as other more visible forms of abuse with regard to its impact upon the child. 
As adults, children who have witnessed violence and abuse are more likely to become involved in a violent and abusive relationship themselves. Children tend to copy the behaviour of their parents. Boys learn from their fathers to be violent to women. Girls learn from their mothers that violence is to be expected, and something you just have to put up with. This was a worrying aspect of the abuse in cases of domestic servitude where such statements are often made by adults to or about the victim and colluded with, or supported by other family members 
However, children don't always repeat the same pattern when they grow up. Many children don't like what they see, and try very hard not to make the same mistakes as their parents. Even so, children from violent and abusive families may grow up feeling anxious and depressed, and find it difficult to get on with other people. 
A particularly troubling aspect to the impact of exposure to domestic servitude, is that the abuse is perpetrated and condoned by the children’s parents and possibly extended family. Children learn social norms, values and behaviours from their parents. When the victim of domestic servitude is also required to tend to the needs of the children, attitudes to the victim are modeled by the adults. 
Children are often the indirect victims of domestic servitude. Investigators need to recognise the presence of children and the effects of exposure to this form of abuse, in exactly the same way that we would with regard to domestic violence. At the point of identifying suspected Domestic Servitude, Children’s Social Care should be engaged in joint planning and investigation with the Criminal Investigators. 
Children within families may therefore be witnesses but should also be considered as indirect victims of the abuse i.e. suffering or likely to suffer significant harm. 
Case Examples 
Siliadin v France 43 EHRR A cse of Domestic Servitude: A young woman who arrived in France at the age of sixteen, had worked for several years carrying out household tasks and looking after their three, and subsequently four, children for seven days a week, from 7 am to 10 pm, without receiving any remuneration. 
 
In February 2016, in Rochdale, Psychiatrist Minu Chopra and her Marine Engineer Husband,Sanjeev Chopra, both aged 47 were charged with intentionally arranging or facilitating entry into the UK of a person with a view to their exploitation, and knowingly holding another person in slavery or servitude between January 1 2011 and July 31 2015. The alleged victim was a 28 year-old female. The couple had an 8 year old child. 
 
Emanuel and Antan Edet kept Ofonime Sunday Inuk in domestic Servitude. Emanuel Edet was a Doctor and his wife a senior nurse. Ofonime was made to sleep on a piece of foam and kept his meagre possessions in a cupboard under the stairs. Ofonime Inuk’s work included included cooking, cleaning and gardening and looking after the couple’s two children. 
 
In the Case of R-v-SK (2011) the victim, MM, said she had worked as a cleaner at the hospital run by SK’s husband in an African country. After he had died she was made redundant. SK thensuggested to MM that she should come to the United Kingdom and work for her. MM said that when she arrived at the SK’s home she was not given her own room. She was made to sleep on a mattress on the kitchen floor. She had to keep her belongings in a shed outside. Often she was cold at night. SK required her to work all day and into the night. She cooked, cleaned, worked in the garden and attended to SK’s two children, which required her to work at night because both of them suffered from disabilities. She would only be allowed out to do the SK’s shopping or to take SK’s son for a walk. If SK wanted something she would ring a bell to summon her. MM was expected to be available to SK 24 hours a day. 
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