Shoplifting, pollution, excessive drinking and unsafe situations, the Albert Heijn in Hoeven and the municipality are completely fed up with it. Eastern Europeans who work here cause so much nuisance in the shopping center that the municipality will intervene immediately. From now on, a security guard will be present during supermarket opening hours to address those causing nuisance and thus increase safety in and around the Albert Heijn.
“It is a three-month trial that the municipality of Halderberge pays together with Albert Heijn,” says a spokesperson for the municipality.
Nearly seven thousand people live in Hoeven. There are more than seven hundred migrant workers from Eastern Europe in a holiday park. “They go to Albert Heijn to get drinks there, drink in public spaces and leave waste behind. That creates an unsafe feeling in such a small center,” says the municipal spokesperson.
“There are police at Albert Heijn almost every day.”
Wilfred Lutz is the store manager of the supermarket and currently does not consider his supermarket to be a safe or pleasant place. “We are dealing with drunkenness and aggressive behavior in front of and in the store.” In addition, many shoplifters are committed by migrant workers, he says.
Arjan de Wildt has his clothing store next to the supermarket and has seen the nuisance increase enormously over the past year. “There are police at Albert Heijn almost every day and thefts are also increasing in our area. At the supermarket office the walls are full of posters of Eastern European criminals.” He calls the situation in the center ‘intimidating’.
The security guard, who is called ‘host’ by the municipality, must keep an eye on things and speak to those who cause nuisance. “He can speak to people in English, which most migrant workers can do,” the municipality says. “He also has short lines of communication with our BOAs, who can then issue a fine if necessary.” And the police will also have an extra presence in the center of Hoeven in the near future.
“The problem is that these people have no connection with your village.”
Entrepreneur Arjan does not believe that all Eastern European employees should leave his village. “Farmers in the area cannot do without these people, otherwise they cannot harvest. We just need them too. The problem is that these people have no connection with your village and they don’t care much.”
In addition to appointing the security guard, the municipality has taken two more measures. For example, the owners of Villapark Panjevaart and De Olmen, where most migrant workers live, must bring Dutch laws and regulations, such as no drinking in public areas and no throwing waste on the street, to the attention of their residents.
And Villapark Panjevaart should be a holiday park again in ten years. This means that housing for migrant workers is no longer allowed and that they must therefore leave Hoeven.