Asylum agency workers say complaints about unsafe conditions go unheard; Demand change

Woman in mental distress - Credit: - License: DepositPhotos 1-1-2 Politics Business Thursday, 8 October 2026 - 19:30

Staff at Dutch asylum centers who report unsafe conditions get no response inside the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) and have taken their complaints to the Labor Inspector to force the management to act. Too little is done with those reported internally, according to confidential letters from the agency’s works council to its leadership, reviewed by NRC. The message that sends, the council writes, is “that it is better to keep your mouth shut.”

Over the past two years, COA’s management has reportedly received 14 letters from the works council about the conditions in which reception staff have to work. In June, the council wrote that reports on the subject are “regularly used against employees" “instead of being valued.” In another letter, the council reportedly describes a culture that was described as “speak up and you can leave.”

According to the letters, employees now reportedly dare to only approach the council and only about “increasingly serious incidents". For that reason, the works council itself contacted the Netherlands Labor Authority last May, asking it to intervene.

A spokesperson from the inspectorate told NRC that it did receive reports from those COA employees. “Investigations and enforcement proceedings" have subsequently been opened.

COA said safety is its top priority. “Unfortunately, in recent times signals have reached the board about situations in which matters were left unresolved for too long and in which employees felt they were not sufficiently heard,” the agency wrote. “Where things have gone wrong, we regret that and want to learn from it.”