The Immigration Service suspects Danish families of exploiting Filipino au pairs as cheap labor

Copenhagen Post:

The Immigration Service has placed a temporary stop on visas for au pairs from the Philippines. The authority said it suspected host families of forging birth certificates and education documentation.

Weekly newsletter A4 reported that the Immigration Service also suspected Danish families of exploiting Filipino women as inexpensive house labourers.

The service has asked police to conduct an investigation into the women's working conditions.

In the town of Varde, a labour union has sued a local family for exploiting an Ukrainian au pair.

Au pairs are granted visas to live with Danish families, learn their ways and the language in exchange for light chores. The women may not work more than five hours a day, six days a week.

In Varde, however, the au pair worked from 7 am to 6 pm, caring for the family's children and their old, ailing grandmother.

The number of au pair visas has increased from 500 in 1997 to 1500 last year. Half of them came from the Philippines or Ukraine.

A similar situation happens here in the United States where American employers use immigrant labor to keep wages low.