The German police have searched eight buildings in the Kleve region, near Nijmegen, that were rented out by the Dutch to migrant workers. According to the German police, the buildings were badly dilapidated and neglected.
Two Dutchmen, managers of an employment agency, are suspected of having rented these properties for excessively high rents to foreign employees, especially to Romanians. The two managers are said to have abused the victims’ precarious financial situation. It is not clear whether they have been arrested.
They would also have taken advantage of the lack of language skills of the migrant workers to mislead them and make them pay a much too high rent. Authorities are investigating the premises.
‘Worse living situations’
At the beginning of this year, the German and Dutch police also checked the accommodations of more than 140 migrant workers working in the Netherlands, mainly Romanians and Bulgarians who worked through employment agencies in Dutch slaughterhouses.
Fire safety was insufficient in the buildings in Emmerich and Geldern. Mold and vermin were also present in the buildings and other deficiencies were identified. The Labor Inspectorate said at the time that the employees are “seriously disadvantaged” by the employment agency in the border area.
Yesterday, the inspectorate criticized labor migration in the Netherlands in its annual report. The benefits of labor migration often end up with employers, while society bears the costs, the inspectorate said. With regard to the housing of the migrant workers, the Inspectorate wrote that the choice for more migration “creates increasingly miserable living situations”.
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