Refugees face high unemployment in Netherlands

The Netherlands must take urgent action to make sure that refugees in the country do not dramatically increase the unemployment rate in the nation, said Harry van de Kraats, director of employers' association AWVN. This group could wind up as long-term unemployed if the country does not help refugees quickly find work, he said in an interview with BNR. The unemployment rate among people with a low-level of education could be up to three times higher when factoring in refugees, Van de Kraats said. Unemployment numbers now are around 600 thousand, and only 80 thousand new jobs were created over the past year, he added. The most affected are older people, ethnic minorities and the less educated. Van de Kraas also added that companies, as well as keeping an eye on profits, should also play their roles in lifting up society by increasing long-term employment, which he referred to as “the new licence to operate”. He looks to a programme that placed 7,500 people with disabilities into jobs as a model for dealing with long-term unemployment among other groups of society. "We must generate new jobs," he said, noting that the country's leaders need to get entrepreneurs and businesses onboard with a plan to boost unemployment.