To make matters worse, it appears that Cultural Care tried to cover up prior au pairs' histories and complaints against the father accused of sexual assault and who has been a customer with Cultural Care for over three years.
According to a CT newspaper, The Register Citizen (see full story by Tracy Kennedy at registercitizen.com), Muhammed Bhatti, 38, married with one child, was charged with first, second and third degree sexual assault charges in Bantam, CT Superior Court on Friday, January 23, 2009.
His arrest and subsequent charges were based on his au pair's accusation to police that Bhatti said to her he had to "inspect" her before she could swim at a New Milford pool on November 5, 2009. He told his au pair two tests were needed for herpes before she could enter the pool and he allegedly told her to undress and then, by force, administered the "tests" using Vagisil and Q-tips.
After the sexual assault, the au pair left the house and reported the incident to police. The au pair, whose name was not released, never returned to the host family's home. She has since returned to Slovakia but told police she would return to testify, if necessary.
When police interviewed Natalie Jordan, senior vice president of Cultural Care, she told police that the agency was not aware of any complaints against Bhatti and the Slovakian au pair was only the second au pair placed in that home. The police may have been sceptical since they issued a court ordered search that forced Cultural Care to turn over all records on the Bhatti family. Police then discovered information contrary to Ms. Jordan's initial statements: there were seven Cultural Care au pairs placed with the Bhatti host family since 2005.
Police were able to contact 4 of the previous au pairs and each one of them reported feeling uncomfortable with Bhatti and reported "specific incidents" that had occurred between them and Bhatti. No information was released regarding what years these incidents took place or if any of these au pair left the home or the program due to these incidents.
Wasn't 7 au pairs in less than 4 years enough of a red flag for this agency to take a harder look at the Bhatti family? In addition, au pairs leaving host family homes (at least 4-5 left the home during the 3 and a half years the family was in the program) are interviewed and asked 'why" and this information is documented and used to evaluate the appropriateness of the home environment. Or, it is supposed to work that way.
Has Cultural Care gotten too big for its own britches?
They have aggressively marketed their services in the past few years, taking large numbers of customers away from the once top industry leader, Au Pair in America, located in Stamford, CT. Perhaps Cultural Care has lost sight of their goals? Besides making money, that is. Au pair agencies have the responsibility to provide a safe and secure environment for the girls they recruit and place in American homes and host families are also subjected to criminal background checks, as au pairs are. What happened in this case with the background check? According to the US Department of State, all host families must be American citizens and Bhatti is a native citizen of Pakistan.
More importantly, why did the agency continue to place au pairs in this home after four of the previous au pairs reported incidents with Bhatti that made them feel "uncomfortable?" Obviously the agency knew about these incidents since they tried to hide their files and the history of placements in the Bhatti home from police. Police were only able to contact the previous au pairs (to establish credibility of the reported sexual abuse by the Slovakian au pair) through a court-ordered search.
This disturbing story raises many questions regarding Cultural Care. We understand that these incidents can happen - there is only so much any au pair agency can do besides the family background check and to continue to monitor the home, but to hide key evidence in a sexual assault case? This action can cause many host parents to question the trust they place in the program and it may also affect the thousands of prospective au pairs' decision to sign up with Cultural Care going forward.
We will continue to report on this story as it unfolds in the news and the court. Please send us your comments to this blog or to our website: www.aupairclearinghouse.com
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Well, I was disturbed by this story too!
ReplyDeleteVery sad situation for these young girls who travel so far from their home to be sexually assaulted like this.
I would think the agency should have pulled him from the program when they found there was 7 au pairs there in the home in less than 3 years. Isn't this usually a red flag?
Also, your post on psychological screening was very good and it raises a lot of questions.
My question is - shouldn't host parents have the same or similiar kind of assessment to make sure the family environment is a safe and secure one for the girls?
Is the interview enough? When we were interviewed by our local rep., she did not ask any questions regarding how 'fit' we were either as individuals or as parents. Now, looking back, how did she really know our family was ok?
What do you think about some kind of assessment for host families, or the dads?
Hi Nina R. Yes, there should be more screening of families however I think this would be expensive for the au pair agencies (and they will not do it). Basically, host families need to prove they make at least $60,000 a year, have three references (from friends) and be either a naturalized citizen or a citizen of the U.S.A. In addition, they must speak good English.
ReplyDeleteRead Natalie Jordan's complete interview and rebuttal to our breaking news story of her agency' cover-up at www.aupairclearinghouse.com
My sense is that Cultural Care doesn't care. When I hear of trouble from au pairs in my English classes, it always turns out to be Cultural Care. Part of the problem seems to be the structure, which has the coordinators doing both the marketing and the coordinating, when the former task could easily be at odds with the latter. It's interesting to find complaints from concerned parents too. Yesterday I had only given voice to how it looks from the au pairs' side.
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