Paula* (50) from Peru went through a nightmare last year.
Sitting in her recently reopened daycare centre, she shares her story with visible emotion as children play around her.
In 2023, Paula received what seemed like an exciting opportunity: a job offer at a daycare centre in Spain, passed along through an old colleague's daughter who was planning to open the business. She hesitated at first — her own daycare in Peru was thriving — but promises of professional training, recognised certificates, and a good salary eventually won her over.
The warning signs came quickly. Before she had even boarded a plane, she was asked to transfer money as a deposit. Without the funds herself, her son took out a loan to cover it.
When Paula arrived in Spain, she found the daycare had never opened. She was steered instead toward a temporary au pair position with a Peruvian family in Germany. The first month felt reassuring — she was treated with kindness and given space to settle in. But once she committed to staying, everything changed.
Her pay was cut, then stopped entirely. The days grew longer, the food scarcer, and the verbal abuse more frequent. On top of caring for a child with autism, she was responsible for the entire household. Then her passport was taken from her, under the guise of sorting out her legal paperwork.
Communication with her family became increasingly difficult. Her son, still waiting to be repaid, could barely get through to her. It was her ex-partner who eventually sent her information from the embassy about human trafficking, and when Paula began quietly seeking help, the family's behaviour turned threatening.
In November, they told her they were driving her to the consulate in Hamburg. Instead, they left her at the side of a motorway near Amsterdam, alone in the cold. Before driving away, they wiped her phone. Paula walked until she found a café, where the staff called the police. She was placed in a temporary shelter through a support centre for trafficking victims, and through the Peruvian consulate, she connected with IOM, with one clear wish: to go home as soon and as fast as possible.
Children now play again at Paula’s daycare
Back in Peru, and with IOM's support, Paula has rebuilt what she once had. She regularly sends updates to Tuba, the IOM counsellor in Amsterdam. She is doing what she loves most, taking care of children and helping them grow and explore the world. She is still under government protection because those responsible for what happened to her are still making threats. But she is home, and she reclaimed her life. “One good thing that came out of this is that I am determined to use my experience to warn others about promises that sound too good to be true and help others not to make the same mistake.”
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