Antilles leader threatens legal action over Dutch immigration limits

AFP:

The prime minister of the Netherlands Antilles, Etienne Ys, threatened Sunday to take the government in The Hague to court over plans to restrict the immigration of young people from the Caribbean islands that are part of The Netherlands, the Dutch news agency ANP reported.

Ys, who is on a working visit to The Netherlands, also said he would seek help from the United Nations' human rights commission. The inhabitants of the Antilles hold Dutch passports and are entitled to live in the mother country.

But the Dutch government, which has sought to control the influx of young people from the Antilles, adopted new measures on May 13.

Under the proposal, people aged between 16 and 24 arriving from the Antilles can be deported if they neither find a job nor sign up for studies three months after their arrival.

"We can't go on like this," the tough-talking minister for immigration and integration, Rita Verdonk, has said, commenting on reports that young people from the Antilles cause social problems in The Netherlands.

Ys should address the problems of the Antilles instead of seeking to unload his unwanted youth on the people of the Netherlands.