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They grow asparagus, clean factory halls, deliver parcels to the door or help with tomato cultivation: around half a million migrant workers work in the Netherlands in jobs that are sometimes difficult to fill. It is accompanied by poor working conditions, exploitation and poor housing. “Unworthy of the Netherlands,” Minister Van Gennip said in a debate on the social affairs and employment budget.
“The value of the work has to go up,” Van Gennip said. Better working conditions and higher wages. The consequence of this – more expensive products – is simply part of it, according to the minister.
With, among other things, better housing, fewer temporary-work agencies and compulsory health insurance, it must be made more difficult for employers to exploit people. Van Gennip thinks this will decrease the “dragging of people.”
Parties in the House, from left to right, believe the influx of migrant workers needs to be addressed. Both government parties and opposition parties are calling for measures.
The parties wonder how many migrants our country can handle. The Migration Advisory Board is investigating and will issue a report soon. Parties like PVV, ChristenUnie, CDA and SP want to know from the cabinet with which numbers the limit has been reached. But Van Gennip doesn’t want to talk about numbers for the moment and underlines that there is free movement of people and goods in Europe.
‘Neighbourhood quality under pressure’
The circumstances are truly appalling, says The Hague Alderman Martijn Balster, traveling with NOS in The Hague’s Transvaal district. On Kaapseplein, vans come and go from half past five in the morning. There are more than 50,000 migrant workers in the city, Balster says.
Migrant workers live here in small rooms, where a “simple mattress can sometimes already cost 150 euros a week”. They have to work long hours for low wages. A migrant tells NOS that he gets up at four and returns to The Hague only 12 hours later. Every day a van takes him back and forth to Zeeland.
Because the houses are small, many migrants find themselves on the streets after work, Balster says. Many homes lack central heating and have electric heaters, which Balster says can lead to dangerous situations. “The quality of life in neighborhoods is under enormous pressure.”
According to him, the local administrators have no knowledge of the temporary agency work sector. There are controls for “overcrowding,” but that can only deal with accidental abuse, Balster says.
“Most Expensive Tomato”
A legal stop to employees from other EU countries, as advocated by SP and PVV, is not possible due to the free movement of goods and people, says the minister. ChristenUnie, among others, wants Van Gennip to discuss it in Europe. The minister does not deny it, but does not have high expectations in this regard. Meanwhile, something has to change, is the point of him.
Last week, Van Gennip wrote that a bill to combat illegal employment agencies will be introduced in the House of Representatives next year. She wants hasten certification.
Alderman Balster from The Hague believes that the cabinet can go one step further and supports the licensing requirement for temporary work agencies. Employers should also be obliged to provide accommodation for people, as in Germany. But there is no majority for this in the House.
The Hague commissioner thinks the time has come to think about our economic income model. “Yes, even if it means the tomatoes get more expensive.”
