I work at Je Goed Recht, a foundation that gives free legal help to people who need it most. Through that work, I've come to know a different Rotterdam. The one that keeps the city running. The cleaners, the delivery drivers, the people working night shifts in warehouses so my package arrives in the morning. The hospitality workers making sure tourists have somewhere comfortable to stay. They're everywhere.
Human Rights Close to Home
I’ve been working in Rotterdam for about a year now. And I love it. The energy, the food, the mix of people, the way this city just gets on with things. It pulled me in quickly.
But my job has changed how I see it.
I work at Je Goed Recht, a foundation that gives free legal help to people who need it most. Through that work, I’ve come to know a different Rotterdam. The one that keeps the city running. The cleaners, the delivery drivers, the people working night shifts in warehouses so my package arrives in the morning. The hospitality workers making sure tourists have somewhere comfortable to stay. They’re everywhere.
A few months ago, one of those working lives came to us for help.
Miguel (not his real name) had been cleaning rooms in a Rotterdam hostel since 2018. Same job, same place, for years. Then the hostel switched cleaning companies. Under Dutch law, the new company takes over the staff. Miguel signed a new contract, kept showing up, and expected things to continue as normal.
They didn’t.
The work dried up. Then the pay stopped. From March 2025, Miguel wasn’t allowed in the building at all. When he tried to reach his employer (a German company) no one answered.
He had no other income. He started collecting deposit bottles from the street to buy food. He ate from the hostel’s rubbish bins — the same hostel he’d been cleaning for years. In court, he described how the uncertainty pushed him into a dark place. To the edge of something he didn’t want to think about.
Je Goed Recht supported Miguel and found him a pro bono lawyer. We went to court. And the judge agreed: his employer had treated him seriously, inexcusably wrongly. Miguel won and is entitled to his salary and compensation.
But here’s the thing that stayed with me.
Even with all that support — a foundation behind him, a lawyer, a court ruling in his favour — it is still not certain he will ever see the money. The company didn’t show up to the hearing. Didn’t respond to anything. To actually collect what he’s owed, Miguel needs a bailiff to track down a German company that seems designed to be untraceable. That takes time, money, and energy that most people simply don’t have.
This is what the access to justice gap looks like in practice. It’s not just about whether a courtroom door is open to you. It’s about whether you can afford a lawyer, whether you speak the language, whether you can front thousands of euros in bailiff and translation costs — and whether, at the end of it all, the other party even bothers to show up.
Miguel’s case made it to court because he had help. Most people in his situation don’t.
Human rights can sound big and abstract. International treaties. Courtrooms. Declarations. But this is what they look like up close: a man collecting bottles on the streets of Rotterdam to afford food. A city that’s vibrant and creative and full of life, and that, just underneath the surface, is also full of people whose most basic rights aren’t being upheld.
But Rotterdam is also a city of people and organisations that show up. That fill the gaps the system leaves behind and make sure no one has to navigate it alone. If this story resonated with you, here are five of them. Consider donating, volunteering or just spreading the word:
- Fonds Bijzondere Noden Rotterdam: emergency financial support for Rotterdammers in acute need; 100% of donations go directly to aid
- Stichting ROS: legal aid, shelter, language classes and support for undocumented people in Rotterdam
- Rotterdamse Douwers: volunteer mentors who support young Rotterdammers navigating work, finances, and life
- Budgetmaatjes010: financial buddy’s that help people manage their administration
- Stichting Je Goed Recht: free legal aid for people who need it most.
Read more:
- Court ruling, Rechtbank Rotterdam, 27 March 2026
- NRC: “De man kreeg een nieuwe baas, die zijn loon niet betaalde en onbereikbaar was” (23 April 2026)
Savannah Koomen
Stichting Je Goed Recht
May 2026