Dutch to deport Caribbean islanders

Peter Conradi:

THE Dutch government has become involved in a row with its Caribbean territories after threatening to deport immigrants from the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba who fail to get jobs.

Concern about immigration has helped to fuel Dutch opposition to the European constitution. A poll yesterday showed 63% will vote “no” in a referendum on June 1 — with commentators describing defeat as a near certainty.

Rita Verdonk, the integration minister, said people aged 18 to 24 from the Caribbean islands who did not find a job or study within three months of arriving in Holland would be sent home.

Many young people from the islands wrongly took the Netherlands to be “the land of milk and honey”, she said. “They think that when they get off the plane, scooters and mobile phones will be waiting for them.”

Talk of deportation has caused outrage in the islands, which are considering a legal challenge. “It’s absurd and unfair,” said Carel de Haseth, an adviser to Etienne Ys, the prime minister of the Antilles.

The Dutch government’s move reflects an increasingly tough stance on immigration following the assassination of Pim Fortuyn, the right-wing politician, in 2002.

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