Migrant workers who come to the Netherlands to work legally need a citizen service number (BSN). They receive this if they register in the non-resident register (RNI). But they do not have to provide a residential address in the Netherlands. This is only necessary after four months, when they have to register in the Basic Registration of Persons (BRP).
Migrant workers vulnerable to pawnbrokers
This means that it is not known where large groups of migrant workers live in the Netherlands. This applies to people who stay in the Netherlands for less than four months, but also to the group that stays longer than four months and does not register with the municipality. Because the landlord does not want that, because they do not know that it is mandatory, or because they are afraid that they will lose rights in their home country by registering in the Netherlands.
And this makes migrant workers vulnerable to pawnbrokers. They can charge high rents without having to worry that the municipality will quickly knock on the migrant worker's door. Because to check whether the housing of migrant workers meets the standards, you need to know where the migrant workers live.
The Boosting Team for the Protection of Migrant Workers also came to this conclusion. Already in 2020. This team, led by Emile Roemer, recommended that employment agencies be made jointly responsible for proper registration of migrant workers. The employer, usually the employment agency, knows where someone works and, because the employment agency often also provides housing, also where someone stays.
By giving the sender a duty of care, you could enforce better insight into where migrant workers live. The duty of care should become part of the certification of employment agencies. Only employment agencies that adhere to the duty of care should be allowed to offer migrant workers to Dutch companies that need (temporary) staff.
Employment agencies do not want to cooperate in the duty of care
But the law that will regulate the admission of temporary employment agencies in the Netherlands, the Admission to the Delivery of Labor (WTTA) Act, does not include the duty of care, according to documents sent to the House of Representatives by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment. It would demand too much from the broadcasters, the effectiveness of a duty of care would be 'questionable' and it 'would also be at the expense of the social partners' support for the admission system.
In other words: the employers, the temporary workers, might no longer want to cooperate.
'A missed opportunity', which leads to 'disappointment' and 'concern' among the municipalities with the most BRP-registered labor migrants. “Enforcing abuses is very complicated if we do not know who lives where,” the municipality of The Hague said. That municipality houses 10 percent of all Bulgarians, Hungarians, Poles, Portuguese, Romanians and Spaniards registered in the Netherlands.
“Workers who come from abroad and where the sender has no duty of care are often insufficiently informed of their rights and obligations, as a result of which they can end up in undesirable situations and have to deal with abuses, exploitation and overcrowding,” according to the local authority. In The Hague they estimate that 1 in 2 migrant workers is registered, but they do not know for sure.
The municipality of Rotterdam is extremely disappointed
In Rotterdam (8.3 percent of registered Bulgarians, Hungarians, Poles, Portuguese, Romanians and Spaniards) similar criticism is heard and in Helmond (1.6 percent) and Zaanstad (1.4 percent) people also react 'extremely disappointed'.
“The lack of duty of care seriously hinders the view of who is staying where in our municipality,” the municipality of Zaandam said. “This gives rogue employment agencies more free rein and the wrong practices remain more easily under the radar.”
D66 and ChristenUnie do not accept it
The municipalities therefore believe that the House of Representatives should still ensure that the duty of care becomes part of the admission of employment agencies. “The law, which is intended to keep out rogue employment agencies, only becomes more effective,” says the municipality of Roosendaal. And hadn't the Rutte IV cabinet promised to implement all Roemer's recommendations?
In any case, D66 and ChristenUnie do not seem to accept the abolition of the duty of care. D66 wants to know 'how and when it would be possible to add the duty of care to the admission system' and the Christian Union asks for a timetable to 'further develop' the duty of care.
According to Minister Van Gennip (SZW), the government is preparing other measures to 'significantly improve' the registration of labor migrants. The House would be informed about which ones before the summer.