Dutch staffing agency Otto Work Force is planning to start supplying ‘cheap’ Asian migrant labour to Europe, starting with Poland, the company’s founder Frank van Gool told the Financieele Dagblad.

The company, in which Japanese company Outsourcing recently took a 56% stake, turned over €350m last year, supplying mainly Polish, Slovakian and Bulgarian workers to other countries in Europe.

Now the company plans to bring in Asian workers to fill the gaps in the Polish workforce this year. Van Gool says he expects to be bringing Vietnamese and Filipino workers to the Netherlands and other west European countries within seven years.

‘The Netherlands is not yet ready but will not be able to avoid using Asian workers in the longer term,’ he said. ‘The shortage of workers will be too big.’

‘If the economy continues to grow, we will need millions of extra workers in Europe,’ Van Gool said. ‘We want to be ready.’

Van Gool plans to start with Poland because, he says, eastern European countries are more flexible at giving permits.

The Netherlands, he says, is much more difficult. ‘The Poles who are here are not accepted,’ he told the FD. ‘Everyone thinks we are so friendly and multicultural, but partly due to Geert Wilders, that is no longer the case.’