The number of third-country nationals posted to the Netherlands through another European Union member state reached 29,700 in 2025, marking a sharp increase from 18,200 registered workers in 2021, The Daily Standard reported.
Last year, the Netherlands issued 2,530 combined residence and employment permits to individuals from outside the EU.
Minister of Social Affairs and Employment Hans Vijlbrief announced new rules to curb this construction during an interview on WNL On Sunday. He stated that workers from countries such as Belarus register with employment agencies in Poland before being immediately sent to the Netherlands. They are put on the FlixBus, as it were,
Vijlbrief told WNL On Sunday.
While these workers are formally employed in Poland, they perform their work in the Netherlands without local protections if problems arise. Former minister Van Hijum previously stated that his successor would likely have to finish the job after the Schoof cabinet made a preliminary move last year to limit the route, following the adoption of the Paternotte motion by the House of Representatives in 2024 to counteract the practice.
Under the proposed measures set to take effect on July 1, 2027, third-country nationals must work for at least three months in the EU entry country before deployment to the Netherlands, according to US.
The cabinet plans to raise labor violation fines by approximately 22 percent starting next year, US reported. A penalty for paying less than the minimum wage will increase from a maximum of 10,000 euros to about 12,200 euros.
Minister Vijlbrief emphasized that the primary target is the financial model driving these arrangements. I am convinced that you have to start by breaking how people make money here,
he said on WNL On Sunday. He added that the Dutch economy must eventually reduce its reliance on low-skilled migrant labor by training workers for modern industries like information technology and artificial intelligence.
According to US, companies use this route as a loophole to bypass stringent Dutch entry requirements for non-EU workers. Bureau Panteia estimated that roughly 38 percent of posted workers go unreported, pushing actual figures closer to 48,000 individuals, The Daily Standard noted.
Applications submitted to the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) for residence permits—which are mandatory for postings exceeding three months—climbed from 450 in 2020 to 4,400 in 2025, and reached 5,000 by the end of August 2026.
The cabinet’s new posting restrictions are scheduled to take effect on July 1, 2027, with the plans set to be discussed in a committee debate in the House of Representatives, US reported. Additional measures, including a ban on withholding money from workers’ minimum wage in exchange for housing and a prohibition on hiring temporary agency workers in the meat sector, are planned for July 1, 2028.
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