Brussels, 15/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), a Council of Europe body, published a report on the Netherlands on Tuesday 15 October in which it expresses concern at a number of issues, such as the cutting of funds for various anti-discrimination structures, changing attitudes to integration and the cost of residence permits. In its report ECRI is particularly concerned by the way in which Islam and Muslims and also Europeans from the new EU member states are depicted by certain politicians and media, most commonly as a “threat” to Dutch society.
Among other reasons for concern raised in the report, ECRI highlights that Bills with discriminatory implications have been announced to regulate the settlement in the Netherlands of Dutch citizens from parts of the Antilles and extremely complex integration tests for foreigners which could deny the right to family reunification. Nor is there a national inclusion strategy for Roma.
ECRI puts forward a number of recommendations, to be applied within two years, when the next assessment will take place. Racist motivation should be recognised as an aggravating circumstance in the criminal code, suggests ECRI, and current racism and racial discrimination legislation should be applied in all cases, in both public and private spheres. The authorities should make sufficient resources available to enable the online discrimination complaints bureau to do its work effectively. The financial independence of the Dutch Human Rights Institute should be ensured. Another problem is the exploitation of temporary agency workers who do not live in the Netherlands permanently.
On the positive side, ECRI notes that measures have been taken to improve the reporting, registration and prosecution of racist crime. A dense and well performing network of local anti-discrimination services is in place in the Netherlands, ECRI says. (SP/transl.fl)