Dubious draft law on Caribbean Dutchmen slammed

A Commission of international immigration specialists has slammed a plan by VVD Second Chamber member Andre Bosman to place conditions to the citizenship of people from the Dutch Caribbean.

“The Commission Meijers is aware that only a small portion of the Antillean Dutchmen cause serious problems and encounters difficulties integrating in the Dutch community,” the commission wrote today. It said that it is rather the law that does not effectively contribute to finding a solution to the problems. “The law … may well become the source of new problems for Dutchmen in the migrant groups,” it stated, adding that the law is in violation of several international requirements and two EU directives.

The draft legislation suggested by Bosman sprout from an article in the Governing accord that suggests that Caribbean Dutchmen –from the islands of Aruba, Curacao and St. Maarten- who want to migrate to the Netherlands should be tested on police history and their income status.

D66 Second Chamber member Gerard Schouw called it “hurtful and unfair to make a differentiation between people from our own kingdom.” Bosman was adamant though. “The Netherlands has been suffering problems with underprivileged Antilleans for years. Statistics show that this group is omnipresent in the social structure as well as in crime. Their school dropout numbers are exponential. With this legislation VVD is trying to diminish the attraction that the Netherlands has, and force the islands to invest in their people,” he said.

The proposed legislation has been called racist and arbitrary on the islands.