Eindhoven needs to tackle the exploitation of migrant workers harder. Mayor Van Gijzel said that after an information evening about human trafficking at the Stadhuis (city hall).
According to the Eindhoven Mayor the policy against economic exploitation is still in its infancy, but we need to pull our socks up to really deal with the problem. ‘Last year, the municipality has mainly been busy in addressing sexual exploitation’.
Thousands of Eastern Europeans work in the region, a group that is often victim to exploitation. But the local authority of Eindhoven has no clear image of the situation in the city. Last year some 500 reports of forced labor were made at the regional ‘Migranten Informatiepunt Eindhoven’ (migrants information point Eindhoven). Seven out of ten times the exploitation was in Eindhoven itself.
The municipality wants to tackle the problem by better recognizing and registering signals of exploitation. Van Gijzel thinks that this is going to be tricky. ‘We are talking about so-called ‘haalcriminaliteit’ (offences without registration). Exploitation is not visible and therefore difficult to detect. I therefore ask people who are being exploited to report this.’
The Eastern European migrant workers in the Eindhoven region mainly come from Poland. Exploitation occurs mainly in the hotel and catering industry, transport, agriculture and horticulture.
Source: Studio040
