Health risks of labor migrants in the Netherlands are greater than previously thought
The living conditions of labor migrants in the Netherlands are worse than previously thought. Employees struggle with physical and mental problems, receive little or no medical care and have to work long hours.
This is based on a report published today by expertise centre Pharos. Researchers at the centre interviewed 260 migrant workers and had intensive conversations with ten of them.
“People are working till they drop”
Researcher Inge Goorts tells the newspaper that “people are working till they drop”. It mainly concerns Eastern European labor migrants who come here to work. “We suspected in before that there were abuses, but we did not know that the impact on health was so great and severe,” Goorts tells NRC.
Migrants work long hours and have little time for social activities or relaxation. They earn too little money to buy healthy food and have no time to exercise.
Those who become ill often work out of fear of losing their jobs. Many migrant workers are insured through an employment agency and therefore cannot receive medical care if they lose their job.
Language problems
Many migrants do not speak Dutch and sometimes hardly any English. As a result, they miss out on reimbursements and have little knowledge of possible help with mental problems.
Recommendations
Het Aanjaagteam Bescherming Arbeidsmigranten, led by former SP leader Emile Roemer, made recommendations in 2020 to improve the position of migrant workers.
However, according to the Pharos researchers, those recommendations do not go far enough. There must be more information in the field of health, interpreters must be deployed more often and employment agencies must adhere to stricter rules
Source: rtlnieuws.nl
Recent Comments