Unbiased look at the Sint Maarten Elections
THE HAGUE--The Party for Freedom PVV in the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament on Wednesday submitted an initiative law which aims to send persons from Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten who have been convicted of a crime back to their island.
An expulsion law is needed to "protect" the Dutch society against the excessive and often violent, criminal behaviour of persons from the islands, contended PVV Members of Parliament (MPs) Sietse Fritsma and Machiel de Graaf, the initiative takers of the law proposal.
The law proposal puts the protection of victims of violence, robberies and other severe crimes in the centre by expelling violent and trouble-causing Dutch Caribbean persons, Fritsma and De Graaf stated in the explanatory note. "It is about safety and the interest of the victims."
Those persons from the islands living in the Netherlands that don't display criminal behaviour don't have to worry that they will be expelled. The law should prevent Dutch Caribbean persons planning to move to the Netherlands to continue their criminal behaviour it was stated in the explanatory note.
The law proposal contains a "gliding scale," similar to the one used in the Dutch law to regulate the stay of foreigners. Basically it means that the shorter the stay, the shorter the term of penalty needed to expel someone. In other words, a person who has been living in the Netherlands for a short period can be quickly expelled when he or she has been convicted of a crime.
Age doesn't play a role in the law proposal, because Fritsma and De Graaf are convinced that both youngsters and older people from the Dutch Caribbean are committing crimes. The initiative takers are basing their justification for the need of this law on various reports and researches that focus on Dutch Caribbean persons in the Netherlands.
Persons from the islands, mostly from Curaçao, are overrepresented in Dutch crime statistics. It concerns violent crimes, financial crimes, disturbing the public order, traffic violations and drug related crimes. Not only men are overrepresented in these statistics, but women as well.
Reports and statistics show that Dutch Caribbean persons are more liable to use excessive force. Curaçao youngsters consider it a normal thing to carry a knife with them, it was stated in the explanatory note.
Dutch Caribbean men are more likely to be murdered than native Dutch males. Youngsters from the islands are 15 times more likely to be killed than their native peers. Murder is the major cause of death of Dutch Caribbean men between the age of 15 and 29.
According to Fritsma and De Graaf, the figures show that a part of the persons from Curaçao, and to a lesser extent Aruba and St. Maarten are facing a dim future in the Netherlands.
The law proposal will now go to the Council of State for advice. The law will not apply to persons from Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba since these are Dutch public entities.
Fritsma announced the initiative law proposal during Wednesday's debate on the draft 2015 Kingdom Relations budget. MP Wassila Hachchi of the Democratic Party D66 took Fritsma to task right away. Hachchi pointed out that people from the islands had the Dutch nationality. "We are all Dutch," she said. Fritsma put Hachchi's criticism aside. "They are from another country."
Hachchi contended that a law like this wouldn't solve the problem of criminal, deprived youngsters from the islands, and that it was better to give them a future on the islands. "That works better than to slam the doors and raise the fences," she said.
