Healthcare centers fined for exploiting Indonesian “interns” as unpaid staff nurses
The Netherlands Labour Authority has imposed nearly 700,000 euros in fines on a college in Noord-Brabant and two health care institutions in Flevoland and Drenthe for violations tied to the recruitment and employment of at least 62 Indonesian nursing graduates brought to the Netherlands under false pretenses and then used as regular workers without proper authorization.
The penalties stem from a coordinated arrangement involving a Brabant-based higher education institution, now known as Habeo+, a recruitment intermediary based in Waalwijk, Yomema, and care providers in Flevoland and Drenthe. According to the Labour Authority, the group intended to recruit about 1,200 Indonesian students annually to address persistent staffing shortages in Dutch health care.
The Labour Authority found the college and care providers violated the Foreign Nationals Employment Act and the Minimum Wage and Minimum Holiday Allowance Act. The Brabant college was fined 347,200 euros for violations of the Foreign Nationals Employment Act. The Drenthe care institution received a 224,000 euro fine. The Flevoland care provider was fined 132,000 euros for Foreign Nationals Employment Act violations and an additional 33,000 euros for minimum wage violations, along with a penalty order. Both care providers also received warnings of possible preventive shutdowns to prevent further violations.
Investigators concluded that at least 62 experienced Indonesian nurses were recruited with promises that they would be enrolled in a Dutch bachelor-level nursing program. They were told they would work 16 hours per week as supervised interns and another 16 hours per week in paid care work. In reality, the Labour Authority found, they were deployed full-time as employees performing regular nursing duties, with no genuine supervised internship.
The agency said the arrangement amounted to a “construction” designed to use student residency rules as a pathway to labor. It found the workers should have been treated as employees, not students, and therefore required work permits that the employers did not obtain.
Internal government concerns were raised as early as October 2021 in an email from an Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) official, who wrote: “In our view this is mainly a construction to bring cheap labor from abroad to the Netherlands (my director used the word ‘exploitation’). Why would graduated Indonesian nursing students still need to follow a four-year bachelor program here, with the possibility of a one-year extension?”
The official added: “For institutions it is of course extremely lucrative to first have four to five years of (cheap) access to an intern, and then hire that person as a well-trained worker. And why would the nurse return to Indonesia after four to five years, where both health care and salaries are at a much lower level.” Despite those concerns, the project proceeded.
The Labour Authority also found that the Flevoland care institution had previously been ordered to repay unlawfully withheld wages to 22 Indonesian students, which it did. However, inspectors later determined the institution then issued repayment demands back to the students, in some cases for amounts higher than what had been repaid, citing costs the employer sought to recover. Students paid these amounts out of fear.
Marijke Kaptein, director of supervision at the Labour Authority, said: “That seemed fine at first, but I had to catch my breath when I saw what inspectors later found. Shortly after the care institution repaid the wages, it sent the students a claim for repayment that was sometimes even higher. Due to costs the institution wanted to recover from the students. The students paid these claims out of fear. This is unlawful, but we also find it shocking.”
The Labour Authority has ordered the employer to repay the wages again, backed by a penalty of 1,200 euros per day for noncompliance, in addition to the 33,000 euros fine for minimum wage violations.
Investigators said the Indonesian nurses reported feeling misled and exploited after arriving in the Netherlands beginning in 2021. Multiple reports, including from RTV Drenthe, described widespread problems in the program, and many participants left the work-study arrangement. The college, formerly known as Avans+, later stopped recruiting new students and became involved in legal disputes with Yomema over the failed initiative.
Authorities said at least 62 Indonesian nurses ultimately came to the Netherlands through the program. The Labour Authority said the case reflects broader patterns it has identified in which labor arrangements are structured around profit while bypassing labor protections.
