Swedish migration agency admits failures in protecting au pairs from exploitation

Sweden’s Migration Agency has acknowledged systemic failures in preventing the exploitation of au pairs, confirming in a new report that foreign workers in the programme face deception, overwork, and abuse—while the agency itself has repeatedly ignored warnings of criminal activity.

The report, titled Risk of Abuse in the Handling of Au Pair Work Permits, details how host families exploit the programme to secure cheap labour, subjecting au pairs to conditions amounting to “human exploitation.” Investigators found that the agency had received indications of serious criminal conduct in au pair cases but failed to act on them.

One au pair described working 15-hour shifts for two separate families, often finishing at 3 a.m. only to begin again at 8 a.m. Another recounted sleeping in a glass-walled room with no privacy, forced to share a bed with children and denied a full night’s rest. A third testified to working nearly round-the-clock with just three to four hours of sleep per night, performing household and childcare duties far beyond the programme’s intended cultural exchange purpose.

The Migration Agency, which approves over 400 au pair permits annually—primarily for workers from the Philippines—admitted it lacks systematic oversight once au pairs arrive in Sweden. Tips about suspected exploitation have gone uninvestigated, the report states, though the agency recently established a central reporting unit to address such failures.

Tags: sweden, labour rights, migration