28/11/2017 London News

naming the Rohingya Muslims on a

visit to the

Hello and welcome, I'm Alpa Patel.

BBC London has spoken to au pairs

working in London who say they have

been victims of exploitation.

A leading expert in the field

says the current system

is putting au pairs at risk

and the Government needs

to put in place tighter

regulation to protect them.

Some on this march are strangers.

Almost all are foreign au pairs.

They have come to support each

other and make a stand

against exploitation and abuse.

We meet Ellie, not her real name.

We have disguised her face

and changed her voice

for legal reasons.

She tells us about her

previous host family.

The family were very violent.

They weren't violent with me,

but with each other.

I felt really

uncomfortable and unsafe.

I also did 14 hours a day,

seven days a week.

It was too much and I left.

According to Government guidelines,

au pairs aren't workers

and so aren't eligible for minimum

wage or paid holiday.

They are meant to be treated

as a member of the family

and given a room and meals.

In exchange, they do around 30

hours of light housework

and baby-sitting a week,

in return for what is called "pocket

money" of £70 or more a week.

But we found online adverts that

went beyond the recommended hours.

Adverts asking for excessive

household tasks and

even proxy parenting.

The title of the advert up

here is "au pair/carer".

Rosie Cox has carried

out extensive research.

She has been trying to raise

awareness about au pair

exploitation for over a decade.

I think the Government needs to be

quite firm about what au pair

is so somebody can say 70 hours

a week isn't au pairing,

I ought to be being

paid minimum wage.

At the moment, nobody

knows where au pairs are,

they are not registered in any ways,

the agencies that place them do not

have to be registered

so they are this unknown population

and I think we need to think

about how vulnerable,

and this is almost all women

we are talking about, young women

inside people's homes.

Not every single au pair Lee Mack

had a negative story. Anna is

Spanish and looks after Isabel and

Rufus in non-head.

For me, from the

first minute I arrived here, I've

felt like a member of the family. I

always have the weekends of, so I

have a lot of time to Noland in and

for me, it is amazing living here. I

feel lucky.

Anna's host family work

long hours. They are one of many

families across London who rely on

au pairs to help with childcare. But

experts warn without tighter rules,

au pairs are left open to

exploitation, with few people to

turn to.

We did ask the Government

about the treatment of au pairs -

they told us that any au pair

that is the victim of modern slavery

should contact the police for help.

A judge has ordered new inquests

into the deaths of two men

who were killed by a serial killer

they met on dating websites.

Stephen Port was convicted

a year ago of murdering

Daniel Whitworth and Gabriel Kovari,

as well as two other men.

But the coroner called

for the original verdicts to be

quashed after "significant

new evidence" emerged.

Hertfordshire Police has been

accused of failing victims of crime

by not properly recording incidents.

The policing inspector

found thousands of crimes

are going unrecorded -

around 13% - including cases

of domestic violence.

Its report says call handlers need

to log full details of conversations

when crimes are reported,

and ensure they're

passed to officers.

If, in the first instance,

a crime isn't recorded,

it is very unlikely then

that the perpetrator

is going to be brought to justice.

There are some technical rules

around how forces ought to record

crime and Hertfordshire has a little

bit more to do in order

to say it is actually adhering

to all of those rules.

Thames Water has said that it

will reduce increases on household

bills next year after admitting

that it "let down" its customers.

Britain's biggest water

company has said it expects

to miss its targets on leaks,

after a string of incidents.

But the company says it's working

hard to improve performance.

London's economic strength and

excellent schools means it's

outperforming the rest of the

country for social mobility.

The capital provides more

opportunities for its residents,

including the poorest,

to progress in life.

Areas like Westminster,

Tower Hamlets, and Hackney

are all reducing the divide

between advantaged and

disadvantaged children.

But adults are missing

out on the opportunity

to improve their lives due to high

housing costs and the prevalence

of low-paid jobs.

The Mayor of London will set

out new plans later -

to help try and increase the number

of people who cycle in the capital.

The plan will double cycle parking

in new developments,

and require new housing and offices

to be built near public

transport links.

If you used to the use

South West Trains and found

the carriages to be grubby,

you wouldn't have been mistaken.

When Stagecoach found out

it was losing the franchise

it cut back on maintenance.

The new owners walked

in to find every single train

needed a deep clean.

Paul Clifton has been

finding out more.

This is called a deep clean.

The train needs it, badly.

At Fratton depot in Portsmouth,

Darryl Warren has been doing this

full-time for 100 days.

Bank cards, scarfs,

clothing, all sorts.

People get on the train

in the morning and they just think,

yeah, it is clean but you see it at

to the end of the day, pretty messy.

Do you clean your own

house this thoroughly?

No.

Seat covers are threadbare.

There are all sorts of dirty

marks on the carpet.

Newspapers, drinks,

sweets, chewing gum.

Unfortunately even down to things

like needles, condoms.

You must get a very different view

of passengers from the rest of us.

Yes, sometimes you just

kind of thing, well,

Yes, sometimes you just

kind of think, well,

I really wish you would pick

up your rubbish and people that

don't quite make it to the toilet...

What you get out of it?

I love my job,

I thoroughly enjoy my job.

Our trains have not had a deep clean

for a substantial amount of time

now.

It is about time we started moving

the right direction,

so this is very much the first

of towards a long-term cleaner

future for our trains.

The deep cleaning a short-term fix.

Over the next two years,

every South Western Railway vehicle

will be refurbished, or replaced.

Paul Clifton reporting.

It's a new festive trend

in the capital - igloos.

These cosy constructions are popping

up on rooftops and along the Thames.

They're becoming popular

venues for socialising

during the chilly weather -

but can cost up to £600

to rent for an evening.

Kate is in the studio, do we need

some igloos over the next few days?

You might do come Thursday, it is

getting much colder. This afternoon,

we are looking at some sunshine. We

started with one or two spots of

rain but they quickly clear down to

the south-east, revealing this, blue

sky and sunshine and we will hand on

-- hang onto this sunshine, some

patchy cloud around but not

-- hang onto this sunshine, some

patchy cloud around but not getting

in the way. It is still feeling

cold. We have this north-westerly

breeze so despite the sunshine, it

will not feel to warm at all,

maximum six or seven but factor in

the wind and it will feel a few

degrees colder, so a chilly

afternoon and as we head into the

evening, cloud rolling in from the

north. We did, one of two showers

falling as rain, so a bit of breeze

overnight. Further west, you may get

a clearer spell so might get a

sparkle of frost but most places

staying frost free, minimum

temperature between two and three

Celsius. A chilly start tomorrow

morning, a bit more clout tomorrow,

showers feeding in from the North

with sunny spells in between but

again, that north-westerly breeze,

it will still feel pretty cold, very

similar sort of day, similar

temperature of maximum six or seven.

Very cold as we head overnight

Wednesday into Thursday. Widespread

frost for Thursday morning, the

breeze still with us from the north

and the chance showers moving in

from the east. The air particularly

cold, temperatures up at five but

more likely to feel like zero.

Well, that is it from me.

Louisa Preston will be here

with our 6:30 evening programme.

But for now, from us all,

a very good afternoon.