When labor inspector Suzan Carfil checks a sushi chain in Zwolle at the end of 2021, one chef stands out. According to his papers, he would be a specialized sushi chef from China, but he is behind the fryer all day long. The man came to the Netherlands with a work visa for Asian chefs and is said to have mastered the most advanced sushi techniques. When Carfil shows him the menu, the man admits he can’t make sushi at all.
The employee from China had been asked via email whether he wanted to work in the Netherlands, and had no idea where he ended up, Carfil finds out. He claims that he can keep his salary, 1,600 euros net per month, but Carfil doubts this. Other Chinese who came to the Netherlands through this arrangement said that they reimbursed their employer part in cash. Some bosses, the inspector knows, see such an Asian cook as “a very cheap labour.”
Research platform Investico already reported in March 2021 that Asians who work in the Netherlands through the cook scheme are regularly out of work or paid too little. It now appears from discussions with the Labor Inspectorate and other investigative sources with which NRC said that work visas for Asian cooks are widely abused.
The violations range from human smuggling to exploitation of kitchen staff. Moreover, the work visa is used to bring Asians to the Netherlands, who disappear into illegality after a number of years as a chef or try to obtain permanent residence papers.
The Labor Inspectorate has carried out “a large number” of investigations into Asian restaurants this year and will hand them over to the Functional Prosecutor’s Office of the Public Prosecution Service as soon as they are completed.
No Conimex
The number of Asian catering businesses has grown rapidly in recent decades – the sector has a turnover of 1.5 billion euros annually, according to the Association of Chinese-Asian Horeca Entrepreneurs (VCHO) – but there is a shortage of good chefs. And you need that, say the restaurateurs, because a good Chinese meal is not Conimex from a bag. This requires certified Asian chefs, according to the industry. Minister Lodewijk Asscher of Social Affairs (PvdA) offers solace in 2014. He concludes the ‘wok agreement’ with the industry: from that moment on, they can fly in chefs from Asia.
The rules for this are simple. For example, the restaurant must first have searched for suitable staff in the Netherlands and have posted a vacancy through the UWV. If that doesn’t help anyone, then mediation agencies in China can often find the right people.
The application for the required permit goes through the Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND). On the form, about twenty sides, the employer states, among other things, the type of cuisine for which he hires the cook (Chinese, Japanese, Tibetan, Thai, Vietnamese), the style (wok, grill, sushi) and the level of the employee. . This can vary from a specialty chef (level 4) to a sous chef (level 6), comparable to the Dutch MBO level 3 or 4.
If the IND has checked the antecedents of the future employee and agrees, a flight will be booked for the cook.
There was no lack of enthusiasm for the scheme. In five years, the IND issued more than 5,000 work visas to Asian cooks, according to the Ministry of Justice and Security, for just under 2,000 restaurants. Licenses are mainly issued to Chinese cooks (4,330), but also to Indians (280) and Nepalese (80). The years 2014 and 2015 are not included here, because the applications to the IND “have only been registered separately since October 2016”, a spokesperson emailed.
In five years, the IND issued more than 5,000 work visas to Asian cooks
Abuse
The realization gradually dawns that the wok regulation is being abused. The IND, for example, will get rid of almost six hundred permits in five years. Peak year is 2020, in which 210 permits will be revoked. The service can no longer determine the specific reasons, but it may have happened, for example, because a cook has used false certificates, does not work (any longer) at the specified restaurant, or has been arrested for a crime.
Although signals of abuse trickle in to the Inspectorate fairly soon after the regulation was introduced, this did not lead to ‘project-based investigations’ for a long time. And if the service does want to do this, the corona crisis suddenly cuts in, says project leader Mariëlle Bakker of the Labor Inspectorate.
Investico publishes a study that gets a lot of political attention: several Asian chefs told the research group their stories. This confirms what the inspectors broadly know: there is underpayment in the Asian catering industry and sometimes even human trafficking.
The publication creates political pressure. Minister Wouter Koolmees of Social Affairs (D66) informed the House of Representatives that he would temporarily stop the scheme last June. He announced that he would investigate “whether the regulation can be revived in a stricter form or will be canceled permanently”. Applications submitted for renewal of the permit are still being considered.
Ultimately, it is September 2021 when the Labor Inspectorate starts its investigation into Asian companies that use the ‘wok arrangement’. Based on a risk analysis, she takes a closer look at thirty companies that she suspects are using the scheme improperly. A tentative, tentative conclusion: almost all restaurants break the rules and frequently abuse the regulation.
For example, the Inspectorate came across a restaurant with space for ten guests that is applying for 25 cooks’ licenses. There is also a restaurant that lets the ‘specialised cook’ do the dishes. Bakker: “You then use the scheme for a cheap dishwasher, it is not intended for that.”
easy prey
Asian employees seem easy to abuse that way. Migrant workers are vulnerable anyway, says Anja van Vlerken, program manager for the hospitality and retail sector at the Labor Inspectorate. They often depend on the employer for their place to sleep and live. Moreover, the Chinese come from far away, says Van Vlerken, which makes it difficult to return home if problems arise.
Mariëlle Bakker calls Chinese migrants docile, and therefore “easy prey”. She does notice a change, however: they call the Labor Inspectorate sooner than in the past if it has left a card with them. “They have become more assertive.”
Some restaurant owners are colluding with brokerage firms in China, according to the Labor Inspectorate and other investigative sources. These offices help the migrants with false papers, such as ‘cookbooks’ with the chef’s specialties.
Also read: Improve the labor market for new migrants
What is also striking: many cooks work too long, under bad conditions, and are not paid enough or are not paid for months. Sometimes they sleep on the work floor or pay the boss high rents for their home.
“Some cooks arrive at Schiphol and immediately have to hand in their passports,” says Bakker. “They have an acute debt of 8,000 euros because their travel has been advanced. Then they have to pay it off.”
A large proportion of Asian migrants disappear into illegality once their work as a cook is over, according to the Labor Inspectorate and sources within the judiciary. Or they extend their stay by extending their work visa – issued by the IND for a maximum of two years – and change restaurant each time. After five years, they can apply for permanent residence in the Netherlands, says Bakker.
The restaurants work together on this; cooks hop from one place to another. According to Bakker, this has emerged from the research into the thirty risky Asian companies. “It’s one big network.”
Some cooks arrive at Schiphol and immediately have to hand in their passports
Large scaled research
The police and the Public Prosecution Service believe that a large-scale investigation is necessary into abuses in the sector. They hope in this way to discover whether a tightly organized criminal network is behind the abuse of the cook scheme, which is colluding with the Asian catering industry in the Netherlands.
Mariëlle Bakker, who has just retired as project leader, thinks large-scale research into the industry can be valuable, but does not believe it is a “miracle cure”. She prefers to wait for the ongoing investigations first.
It is only a matter of time before the regulation returns, in a more refined form, says a spokesperson for Social Affairs. “Talks are underway with the industry about what additional measures should be taken to combat the abuses.” It is not known what the scheme will look like and how misuse will be prevented. Nor is it clear when the new regulation will take effect.
Mariëlle Bakker wonders why the scheme for Asian cooks should be revived in the first place. “This arrangement is a monstrosity.”