GENEVA: Around 90 per cent of the world’s 67 million domestic workers have no access to social security protection, with migrants left particularly vulnerable, the International Labour Organisation said on Monday.

Domestic work is largely “undervalued and unprotected,” the UN labour agency said in a new report.

“When domestic workers become old or injured, they are fired, without a pension or adequate income support,” said Isabel Ortiz, head of the ILO social protection department.

The report noted that women were by a wide margin the most affected — accounting for 80pc of all domestic workers globally.

In Italy, roughly 60pc of domestic workers are excluded from social security systems, the report said. The same was true for 30pc of domestic workers in France and Spain.

Not surprisingly, the largest gaps in protection for domestic workers were most severe in developing countries.

For migrants seeking domestic work, including those flocking to Europe amid the current massive movement of people towards the continent, labour protection is especially rare.

Certain countries which have legally mandated social security systems for domestic workers specifically exclude migrants from those programmes, the ILO said.

Published in Dawn, March 15th, 2016