The au pair awarded €9,000 against the couple she worked for in a landmark ruling by the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) is set to take a case against her subsequent host family.

Thousands of families are facing a childcare crisis after being warned they must formally register with Revenue as employers and pay full wages if they take an au pair into their home.

A victim of domestic labour exploitation had told her story to Jehovah’s Witnesses who came to the door of her employer, eventually triggering her release, a conference on human trafficking heard yesterday.

Campaigners have claimed 24 Asian nationals jailed for cannabis cultivation in recent years are potential victims of human trafficking.