For 18 months the journalist Karen Emmons and photographer Steve McCurry - best known for his portrait, “Afghan Girl” - worked on a documentary project to record and expose some of the abuses experienced by migrant domestic workers. They photographed and recorded interviews with workers in four Asian locations, including Hong Kong SAR. They found extreme physical and mental abuse, child labour, forced labour, trafficking, rape and starvation. Some had been abused in their own countries, others had travelled elsewhere in Asia or to the Gulf states. The subjects were male and female, young and old, educated and illiterate; what linked them was poverty, desperation and a lack of protection. Their abusers were equally varied.

The photos will be on exhibition at the Foreign Correspondents Club in Hong Kong in July. In addition, on Thursday 2nd July at 18.00, Karen Emmons will talk about the project, what they saw and found, and what needs to be done to protect domestic workers’ rights.

The documentary project was funded by the International Labour Organization (ILO). The ILO estimates there are more than 52 million domestic workers in the world. Many are also migrant workers. Some recent, high-profile cases have helped bring attention to the scandal of domestic worker abuse. These include the case of the Indonesian domestic worker, Erwiana Sulistyaningsih, whose Hong Kong employer received a prison sentence for abusing the young woman. The exhibition includes a photo of another young woman who worked for the same employer as Erwiana, and who was also mistreated.

In most countries domestic workers are not covered by standard workers’ rights legislation and protection systems. In 2011, a new International Labour Organization Convention specifically covering the rights of domestic workers came into force – it is the first international instrument to focus on this group. So far, it has only been ratified by 17 countries.