Prosecutors: Dutch laundry bosses exploited migrants

AMSTERDAM – Dutch prosecutors say they have arrested four people on suspicion of exploiting migrants by putting them to work, for little or no pay, in a laundry where they apparently also lived in a mouse-infested storage area.

According to a prosecution statement, the migrants, who had fled war zones and did not speak Dutch, were promised 10 euros ($11) per hour but “sometimes got 4.50 euros ($5) per hour or nothing at all.”

Four managers from the laundry in Zaandam, 15 kilometres (10 miles) north of Amsterdam, appeared before an investigating judge Thursday who ordered them detained for 14 days.

Prosecutors say they found a makeshift shelter and kitchen in the laundry, where the migrants likely lived because they did not have enough money to travel to and from work.