A victim of domestic labour exploitation had told her story to Jehovah’s Witnesses who came to the door of her employer, eventually triggering her release, a conference on human trafficking heard yesterday.

WORKERS are being held in slave conditions in Irish homes and businesses because of a lack of legislation to either protect them or prosecute their enslavers.

Extreme poverty and desperation has meant that children as young as seven are being trafficked in west Africa for cheap labour, according to human rights organisations.