« At first they kept pigs, now the farmers focus on labor migrants, » they see in Venray

Toon Heldens drives through the outskirts around the villages of Castenray, Oirlo and Leunen, one hand on the wheel. The North Limburger points out with the other hand. « There! There! And there are also labor migrants. » The locations he designates vary from a campsite and converted barns to specially set facilities, at the request of the municipality hidden behind an earthen wall and fence.

The neighborhood is ‘unpleasantly surprised’ by the plan for a former farm near his house, says Heldens. A partly collapsed house and an old chicken shed on the Horsterweg should give way to housing 124 labor migrants. Heldens: « And there are already so many here: the village of Castenray has 850 inhabitants. In the outlying area around it, more than a thousand labor migrants are located. »

In total, the municipality of Venray, which includes Castenray, Oirlo and Leunen, comes to an estimate of around eight thousand labor migrants within its borders. The province thinks that it concerns thirteen thousand employees, because seasonal forces must also be counted. Most migrants work in the agricultural sector or logistics.

If companies will keep free rein, we will have a prime minister in 30 years who should apologize for slavery at this time

« The company behind the plan for the Horsterweg is talking about something farm-like. On the Artist Impressions It looks nice, « notes Heldens neighbor Misja Demandt. » But in reality it consists largely of containers with brick strips. « 

Demandt is already seeing all kinds of undesirable situations: « Romanians and Bulgarians who are trapping along roads along roads to go shopping for miles away. Dangerous, certainly in the dark. Discarded labor migrants end up homeless in the forest. » Heldens: « There is also noise pollution, excessive alcohol consumption, crime, dealing with drugs and prostitution. Partly understandable, if you put people down in places where there is hardly any entertainment. »

Together with about forty local residents, Heldens and Demandt sent a letter with their objections to the municipality of Venray. There they are a bit in the stomach with the unrest, alderman Wim de Schryver (economy and public space, VVD) confesses. According to him, it clouds the discussion about a proposed policy adjustment for the housing of labor migrants.

Humane

At the end of 2023, the Venray city council agreed to fifteen hundred new housing places for labor migrants up to and including 2027. That also offered room for the approach to abuses. People who lived in undisputed places or otherwise in degrading circumstances were not on the street.

In the decision for those new places, the Venray Council added an amendment: to prevent undesirable concentration of people in the outlying area, a maximum of four hundred labor migrants were located in a circle of 2.5 kilometers around new locations.

The mayor and aldermen were already against the amendment and are now proposing to delete the norm. That maximum is impractical and difficult to maintain, says De Schryver. « Temporary labor migrants can get a citizen service number with limited registration. They do not have to specify where they are staying. Employers do not always keep their personnel administration at. Employment agencies make it even more opaque. The migrants live in licensed and unrestrained (illegal) locations, partly also in normal homes that are not as a housing that is not as a housing that is not as a housing that is not housed as a housing that is not housed as a housing that is not housed as a housing that is not housed as a housing that is not housed as a housing that is not housed as a accommodation for housing.” ”” ”” ”” ”” ”” ”” ”” ”” ””

In other words: exact figures about the number of labor migrants who live and works in Venray are missing. B and W think that without that data refusals of permits on the basis of the 2.5 kilometer standard will not stand to court. De Schryver: « Moreover, we want to be able to deliver custom work per place. Can an initiative there or not? »

Parallel societies arise from a profit rate

In the Venray’s city council there seems to be no majority for scrapping the norm. Many representatives fear that only ‘soft criteria’ remain and plans can hardly be refused anymore.

Cees de Vocht, council committee member on behalf of GroenLinks, is afraid of « the emergence of parallel societies » from profit. « Labor migrants are a revenue model. This region has many stopping farmers. At first they kept pigs. Now a part focuses on labor migrants. It is perhaps a somewhat bitter comparison, but it is what happens. » The local residents of the Horsterweg are also afraid of a « further wild growth » in the absence of the norm.

After a SP motion in the Lower House, De Schryver recently sent a letter to Minister Van Hijum of Social Affairs and Employment (NSC) about the housing of labor migrants. He disputes that large projects fuel the growth of labor migrants. According to the alderman, they help in the fight against « uncontrollable growth of undisputed and often unwanted housing. »

Perverse stimuli

Demandt finds the degree of participation « a noses ». « In Castenray there was an information evening about the plans for the housing of migrants on the Horsterweg. In the long run, the room started to laugh when they started again about their ‘intentions’ and ‘we will take that’. As a resident, you get the feeling that it has already been taken up. »

De Schryver denies that: « It may be a bit premature, but I can imagine that the municipality also finds the proposed development on the Horsterweg undesirable, because the capacity and infrastructure in that environment cannot handle it. »

In the meantime, according to the alderman, with united forces, ‘all perverse financial incentives’ must be removed from the system. « Free movement of people and goods cannot mean that all kinds of vulnerable people from elsewhere are achieved for economic activity that does not always have added value. If companies keep free play and you do not tackle it, then we will have a prime minister who apologizes for slavery in this time in 30 years. »

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