Extensive racism uncovered within Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Racism at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was found to such a wide and extensive degree that it is “serious and worrisome" according to a study the ministry commissioned. The official leadership at the ministry apologized for not having maintained a safe working environment at the ministry’s building in The Hague and at Dutch missions abroad.

Bi-cultural employees and locally hired embassy workers of color experience various forms of racism. They experienced incidents of verbal abuse, derogatory treatment, cultural racism and various other accusations and allegations, they told researchers from Bureau Omlo.

They also said they feel that "sometimes they are left out, ignored, and marginalized. They deal with racist jokes and low expectations." Many employees experience the problems as structural, according to the researchers.

The top civil servant, Secretary-General Paul Huijts, apologized. "The report contains hard conclusions and painful examples," Huijts said after receiving the study on Monday. "What colleagues experience, what is said and the feeling it gives, we find unacceptable."

The ministry will adopt the report's recommendations, including a structural change of culture. It will also become easier and simpler for workers to report incidents, and the process of recruitment and hiring will be examined.

The investigation was started partly in response to the Black Lives Matter protests. The top of the ministry wanted to know which forms of racism occur structurally within the organization of the department.