The findings of an ongoing study being conducted by the Domestic Workers Research Project (DWRP) at the University of the Western Cape confirm that migrant domestic workers suffer arduous working conditions for low wages and are often sequestered behind their employers’ high walls, cut off from family and friends for long periods. 'The regulations that they lay down for you is not to bring anyone on the premises. I felt sometimes like I was in a prison cell,' said Hester Stephens, president of the South African Domestic Workers and Allied Workers Union (SADSAWU).