“My area director is the worst. I know a girl that she was [in] danger and [the area director] allowed that. [Agencies] get paid for the amount of families. So most of them don’t really care about us.”
One au pair told me host families knowingly take advantage of au pairs.
“They take advantage every time they can….The worst was that once, I worked straight 30 hrs. When the parents have to pay the more than 20 extra hours, they just discount hours for my day off…They just paid me three extra hours from 20+ [hours of work.]”
Another au pair informed me the emergency numbers that agencies give them essentially remain non-operational.
“They usually give you an emergency number, but that doesn’t help when you really need it.”
When I asked one au pair if there was any hope for them to escape the agencies, the answer I received revealed quite a bit.
“No, we came here ‘sponsored’ by agencies; the program is only with [the] agency. If the Department of State found out that we have extra money (even for extra hours for the host family), they are going to revoke our visas.”
