Iceland plans to end au pair residence permits

Iceland’s government plans to end residence permits for au pair placements, Justice Minister Þorbjörg S. Gunnlaugsdóttir told mbl.is. She said increased oversight, introduced in 2023, had not achieved its intended results.

Gunnlaugsdóttir said it was understandable that monitoring au pair arrangements had not been a government priority, given the many demands on public agencies. She also questioned whether public funds should be used by the Directorate of Immigration or police to inspect people’s homes.

Asked how the government could conclude that oversight had failed if legally required checks were not carried out adequately, she pointed to evidence of rights violations. She said that in 80 per cent of cases, the women came from the Philippines and had no support in Iceland beyond the families they lived with.

Some women, she said, had been made to work for more than one family, clean company cars and work 12-hour days without time off. Their residence permits depended on their host families, leaving them particularly vulnerable, unlike au pairs from European Economic Area countries, who do not need residence permits.

Dispute over immigration policy

Centre Party MP Sigríður Á. Andersen has called it absurd to focus on the arrival of women from the Philippines given other challenges in immigration policy. Gunnlaugsdóttir said she was seeking to protect the rights of women in a vulnerable position.

The justice minister also criticised the Centre Party for not supporting other government measures on immigration. She said it had opposed a bill that enabled the deportation of criminals such as Kourani, as well as a bill on a departure centre, and questioned why the party had not backed those measures.