Dear Editor,
I applaud the recent immigration raids and the effort to address undocumented labor. However, there is a serious gap in enforcement. While workers are being targeted, businesses employing undocumented individuals are not being held accountable.
It appears that the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Public Health, Social Development & Labor are not effectively collaborating, which is deeply concerning. This lack of coordination raises an important question: are businesses being given more consideration than the enforcement of the law itself? How can the government be taken seriously if businesses are allowed to violate the law without consequence?
The law is clear: under the National Ordinance on Employment of Foreign Nationals (Landsverordening Arbeid Vreemdelingen – LAV), it is prohibited for an employer to employ a foreign national without a valid work permit, with fines ranging from approximately Cg. 2,000 to Cg. 10,000 or more per undocumented worker – yet these penalties appear not to be enforced.
With the CFT recently sounding the alarm about the government’s serious liquidity problems, does the government really want to be taken seriously? It is time for both ministries to work together, enforce these laws, and ensure that these fines help plug the growing hole in the national budget.
A. A. Bryan
