Van Hijum: companies that exploit migrant workers face closure

 

Van Hijum: companies that exploit migrant workers face closure

February 11, 2025

https://www.dutchnews.nl/2025/02/van-hijum-companies-that-exploit-migrant-workers-face-closure/

 

Businesses that exploit migrant workers and violate their rights will be temporarily closed under new measures outlined by social affairs minister Eddy van Hijum.

 

The ministry is adding 45 full-time equivalent staff to the labour inspectorate’s payroll as part of plans to crack down on rogue operators.

 

“At the moment there is a revenue model that profits from bringing labour migrants to the Netherlands and making them live and work here in dreadful conditions,” Van Hijum told the Telegraaf.

 

“We can’t accept that, which is why we are doing everything to break revenue models that rely on exploitation.”

 

Recent research has found that around 10,000 people who came to the Netherlands for work are now homeless, accounting for around 60% of people sleeping on the streets.

 

Labour migrants’ accommodation is often arranged by their employer, meaning that they are evicted when they lose their job. A separate study by the labour inspectorate last year identified 13 employment agencies that routinely abused the summary dismissal procedure to lay off workers without compensation.

 

Van Hijum said his ministry had investigated whether it was possible to close down companies that flouted labour migrants’ rights after being asked to do so by parliament.

 

“Our legal research has shown that that is possible,” he said. “The labour inspectorate has already been given the option of raising fines, but this new fast-track policy will also give them the option of closing companies temporarily,” he said. “We hope it will enable us to catch the real crooks.”

 

The ministry also said it had found a way to penalise companies that force workers to hand over their passports and bank cards as a condition of accepting a job.

 

Seizing personal documents will be regarded as a breach of the employer’s duty to avoid causing unnecessary stress and classed as a psychosocial hazard, which can trigger a fine under Dutch labour laws.