Asian domestic workers terrorized by foreign employers

Asian domestic workers sexually abused, beaten and forced to starve by foreign employers.

Journalist Karen Emmons went looking for scars when she wanted to document the plight of Asian domestic workers. She found at least 25 women who told her about the physical and emotional scars they had experienced while trying to make a living abroad.

Emmons worked with photojournalist Steve McCurry, best known for his famous National Geographic cover photo of an Afghan girl, to document the abuse faced by domestic workers from Asia.

She said she was most struck by the women who were called a dog or a pig, or told they were worse than a pig and a dog.

"It was that dehumanising of them that I found most troubling," she said.

McCurry said these women were "often uneducated, naive women who [were] simply trying to make a better life".

"Many of these women are afraid to report the [abuse]. They are worried about their families, the recriminations and that they will be ostracised and outcast if word gets back they've been raped or they haven't received the money," he told The World program.

"In many cases, these problems are kept quiet because these women are uninformed and just scared."

The exhibition, funded by the International Labour Organisation, is currently on display in Hong Kong.