One third of au pair bureaux in the Netherlands have failed to get through immigration service screenings introduced as part of new immigration rules, the Volkskrant said on Monday.

The new rules, known as MoMi – or modern migration policy – came into effect in June. One aim of the rules is to stop au pairs being exploited and limit their stay to one year, the Volkskrant says.

The bureaux themselves are made responsible for ensuring the girls return home after a year, must update the IND and keep information about the girls for up to five years after they have gone home.

Childcare

Au pairs earn between €300 and €340 a month and are a popular, cheap alternative to formal childcare, the paper points out. Every year some 2,000 au pairs come to the Netherlands, around 1,300 of whom come from outside the EU.

Of the 30 agencies in the Netherlands, 23 have been approved.

‘Of course some bureaux don’t pass… but in the past girls disappeared from sight. We want to work with recognised bureaux to ensure cultural exchange remains the most important aspect and au pairs are not exploited,’ a department spokesman told the paper.