Undocumented migrant workers coming to Netherlands from further abroad

The number of people working in the Netherlands without a permit is still increasing and they are increasingly coming from further away, the Labor Inspectorate told NOS. In the past, these workers were mainly from Poland, Romania, and Hungary. Now, they often come from Ukraine, Georgia, or even further away.

People working in the Netherlands without the proper documentation are in an extremely vulnerable position because they often fear going to the authorities. They often work in horrible conditions, working many more hours than allowed for below-minimum wages.

According to the Inspectorate, temporary employment agencies are casting their nets further away because the demand for cheap labor continues to increase. “You can actually see that the number of migrant workers is starting to run out,” Marijke Kaptein of the Inspectorate told NOS. “All employers who are so eager to get cheap workers, we do not have enough people for that within the EU. Then you get all kinds of models to bring people from outside the EU to the Netherlands.”

The Netherlands currently counts between 600,000 and 800,000 migrant workers, with that number increasing by 40,000 to 50.000 per year. A large proportion of them work in low-paid positions, often in the meat industry, distribution centers, or greenhouse horticulture.

According to Kaptein, that growth is unsustainable. “The current growth of migrant workers is at the expense of the available homes, schools, healthcare.” And it is often the migrant workers themselves suffer under the lack of available facilities. “Sometimes we see mattresses in the racks of distribution centers, where employees sleep in turn.” People are also put out on the street without mercy if they complain or fall ill, she said.

Politicians will have to make difficult decisions because simply reducing the number of migrant workers will come at the expense of industries that use them, Kaptein said. They’ll have to choose which part of the economy they want to continue growing, which will have to shrink.

Minister Eddy van Hijum of Social Affairs agrees that this issue needs addressing. “I think that we in the Netherlands have become too dependent on cheap labor. Far too many sectors have become addicted to labor migration as a solution to their problem,” he told the broadcaster. “We will no longer accept that cheap labor and abuses are the image of the future.”

For now, the Minister hopes that stricter penalties and more checks will help. At the end of this month, the Cabinet will discuss a law to make it easier to prosecute employers and employment agencies for exploiting their workers. The law will include harsher punishments for working with undocumented migrants, including possible prison sentences instead of the current fines.