De Fabel van de illegaal 75, March/April 2006
Author: Jan Tas
Antillean Dutch people set aside
Although Antillean people are Dutch citizens, they are treated as aliens by the Dutch government in a new law proposal. The government will impose strict entrance requirements for Antilleans entering the Netherlands, obliging them to integrate in the Dutch society as well as making it easy to deport them. The implementation of these policies is accompanied by a racist and criminalizing hate campaign.
Policy makers and opinion formers have been supporting a ban on Antilleans who want to come to the Netherlands for many years. (1) In may 2005, the minister of alien affairs Verdonk suggested some new measures, including stricter entrance requirements, and the possibility to deport "criminals". The time of 'soft measures' was over according to her. She wants to force through these policies, whether the Antillean authorities are cooperating or not, so she proposed a new bill on the 30th of January 2006.
Millinx Neighborhood
The law proposal runs parallel to a long-term racist hate campaign against Antilleans. They are constantly being depicted as drug smugglers (2) rapists, armed robbers and dangerous criminals who terrorize the Streets of Dutch cities.(3) In September 2005 a new wave of racism emerged when a group of Antillean boys were arrested by the police as rape suspects. They had supposedly formed a gang called ‘Millinxsystem’, named after the neighborhood they lived in. There were also news reports about shootings that involved Antilleans. An image was depicted of criminal behavior that was completely out of control. As a response to this, the police put 20 detectives on the case. In order to criminalize the Antilleans even more, the police force of Rotterdam-Rijnmond proposed to make a top ten list of 'most criminal Antilleans'.(4) They would then qualify for a ‘special care project later to be announced’.
Luckily there were also critics of the criminalization. ‘It is a new phenomenon that gangs gives themselves a name. This is something that originates from America. But we have to speak carefully about gangs; we do not have American situations yet,’ according to Edward Kam, the executive director of the evangelical youth center Youth for Christ. According to the Millinx neighborhood janitor, Paul Lubeck ‘ it is a lot more quiet than four years ago’. ‘I do not believe in gangs' a prosecutor who pursued the trial in court of one of the suspects admitted. They seem to profile themselves as a ‘gang’ on the internet,’ but in reality, there is nothing wrong with this group’.
These protests are overwhelmed by the racist climate and the repressive measures in the Netherlands. For example, the local authority of Rotterdam launched the plan for a 'bootcamp' kind of school and the deportation of ‘criminal’ Antilleans after they finish their prison sentence. ‘This school is in between a school and a prison. They will have to comply with a strict schedule of 40 hours a week. Besides education, the school is about discipline, order and regularity’ according to local CDA minister of education and integration policy, Leonard Geluk. The local authorities also want to intervene with disciplinary measures when it should become clear that an Antillean mother is neglecting here children. ‘If we don't do this, a child can easily become a criminal’. (5)
Personal treatment
On January 10th, 2006, Rotterdams policymakers and executives organized a conference about ‘the Antillean problems’. Present were the ministers Pechtold, Verdonk and the Mayor Opstelten, representatives of the police and the justice department, scientists, and representatives of the Antillean community. It became very clear that young Antillean peoples should be treated with strict measures. Antillean people in Rotterdam between 5 and 35 will only get three possibilities: education, a job or participation in ‘a judicial program’. ‘There are no more flavors than this’ said Opstelten.(6)
Furthermore a ‘personal treatment’ will be enforced, which was originally established to deal with the nuisance caused by drug addicts, but is now used to combat Antilleans. In the new 'discipline school' 150 places are reserved for Antilleans, 50 ‘criminal’ Antilleans youths will be guided by the church related organization New Song, and 10 ‘heavy cases’ will be deported to the Glenn Mills camps. They also want to provide for a special police officer just for Antilleans. This office will perform the job of a district police officer who will ‘keep an eye’ on the Antilleans in the neighborhoods of Charlois, Feijenoord and IJselmonde. These special officers have been active in Rotterdam for a few years and have a private budget and special authority. Criminologist Marion van San also contribuited her part to the stigmatization. According to her, Antilleans do not just cause trouble, but they also block the way to a solution, since part of the Antillean community denies the severity of the situation.
A duty to be shaped
Verdonk enthousiastically participates in the suppression of Antilleans. She will start a national 'black list' of trouble makers for the police, the justice department and social workers. Rotterdam will put the first 700 names on the list starting from the 1st of April 2006. ‘If an Antillean from Den Helder shows up here, we can find out everything about him in just a few seconds, as well as finding what would be the best suitable measure' says Big Brother Opstelten. The Antilleans on the list have to be forced to comply with the rules. The establishment of a list based on ethnic heritage is racist. Opstelten: ‘We just have to see where this is going’.(7)
Minister Pechtold of Kingdom relations also does his share. His department will spend 19 million euros on social education, a kind of social shaping duty that will be imposed on all Antillean youths by the Antillean government on the 1st of January 2006. This program was tested in 2005. This program was used immediately as an excuse for strict entrance requirements by Verdonk. She was afraid Antilleans would flee to the Netherland to evade this requirement. With this ‘social shaping’ duty, indigent young people from the age of 16 to 24 are forced to follow an ‘educational work project’. If they refuse, they will get a fine or a prison sentence. They also promise to create more internships and job opportunities to give these young people a job. There is a big chance that this project will fail. The economy of the Antilleans is only fed by tourism, and even a large part of this sector belongs to the Dutch and Americans who want to hire white personnel wich preferably cater to white tourists. The Antilleans hardly have industrial sectors and they have a huge structural unemployment rate.
Keeping up appearances
According to Verdonk's new law proposal, Antillean young people who do not come to the Netherlands to de reunited with their families , to visit their families or to enjoy a holiday and those who do not have any plans to go to college or to find a job, are no longer welcome. ‘Indigent young people who come to the Netherlands have to be sent back. Also the young people who are already staying in the Netherlands, but who have not been registered in the local governments administration can be deported if they are involved in ‘serious criminal acts like stealing, violence, and drug crimes’. In 2005 the justice department seemed to have accepted that Antilleans could not be affected by the integration program for ‘non-western immigrants. They are in fact Dutch citizens. But now they did propose a new integration program. This is a distinct measure, but it includes the same responsibilities and the integration law that is applicable to other migrants.
The law proposal still has to be discussed in parliament but it is supported by VVD en CDA. CDA member of parliament, Mirjam Sterk speaks about ‘the Rotterdam street terror’.(8) The few critics of these policies usually point out to the legal defects of the law proposal. Fundamental criticism on the racial distinction between black and white people is still lacking, also outside of the parliament. Only a lot of Antilleans are against the measures out of principle reasons. The Dutch Consultation body of the Caribbean Isles speaks of a ‘humiliating treatment of specific group of Dutch people’. Instead of the stigmatization and criminalization they plea for a ban on ‘mental and social poverty and exclusion’.(9) According to Verdonk the people that criticize her policy are ‘people that believe dreams and not in statistics. I also think that you have to be careful with statistics, but you can not just ignore the numbers’.(10) According to Verdonk Antilleans in the Netherlands are just more criminal than average people. To prevent the government from keeping them out of the country, resistance against this racist law proposal is necessary.
Notes