Migrant workers in Denmark:
"They exist in all industries"

Søren Zeuth has no doubts: There are migrant workers in all industries in Denmark, and the offshore industry is no exception.

- I have had contact with migrant workers who work offshore, but they do not want to join. But I see it in all industries, says Copenhagen-based photographer Søren Zeuth.

For the past two or three years, he has worked to draw attention to migrant workers in Denmark through his photo portraits, which are on display at Esbjerg Harbor this weekend. 

- They are hard to find and they live in secret. Sometimes the six people live in a small house that may even be rented out by their employer, explains Søren Zeuth, who gives an example of how he found a migrant worker:

- My ex-wife's girlfriend's neighbour's son has a strawberry plantation in South Zealand.

From here comes one of the portraits of a seasonal worker on the strawberry plantation, which is printed on brushed aluminium, which hangs on the inside of the container with very strong magnets.

- I want to give them a voice so that we respect and recognize them as people. They tell me that they want to be accepted and face to face. We know from figures from the Ministry of the Interior that 368,000 people with foreign passports worked in Denmark last year. And I have no doubt that the black figure is even higher for people who are here illegally, says Søren Zeuth.

He has a very concrete example.

- Here is a man from Gambia who first paid human traffickers 5,000 dollars (approx. DKK 34,000) to enter Europe. He then paid 43,000 euros (approximately DKK 320,000) for a false identity, which he worked off of by working at a hotel in Denmark. He never saw a paycheck. He ended up being discovered when he contracted tuberculosis and ended up in hospital in Denmark. In May, he was deported to Gambia, says Søren Zeuth.

Started in Germany 

The free movement of labor within the EU helps create the fertile ground for migrant work. But the photographer also sees responsibility for the fact that the migrant workers often end up being poorly paid somewhere.

- The German chancellor Gerhard Schröder said in the zeros that it is important to have a low-wage sector. We have created an underclass that everyone knows is there, he asserts.

However, there are some who fight against that trend.

- Trade unions like 3F make a big effort. In Copenhagen, for example, they create clubs for each individual country, so that migrant workers meet their compatriots there, and then they are informed about their rights, explains Søren Zeuth, who has so far made 50 portraits. The aim is within a few years to come up with 100 portraits and publish a book with them.

But in the coming weeks, Søren Zeuth will be on tour with his container exhibition in Jutland.

- Next week I'm going to Kulturmøde Mors, and in week 35 I'll be at Søndertorv in Vejle, says Søren Zeuth, who is ready to talk about his portraits.

The container exhibition runs this weekend at Britanniavej 3, 6700 Esbjerg in front of Huset Gammelhavn by the quayside. The exhibition is supported by the Jyske Kunstfond.