Access to BES islands to become restricted

April 06, 2010 2:10 PM

THE HAGUE--St. Maarten, Curaçao and Aruba residents will no longer have unrestricted entry to Bonaire, Saba and St. Eustatius when the latter three islands become part of the Netherlands as public entities with effect from October 10, 2010.

The same admittance regulations that the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba currently apply to Dutch Europeans based on the Aruban and Antillean admittance and expulsion LTU law will become applicable to Dutch citizens of Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten when they want to enter the BES islands.

This means that Arubans, Curaçaoleneans, St. Maarteners and Dutch Europeans will receive the same treatment and face the same restrictions as foreigners when they want to enter the BES islands after October 10, 2010.

The new immigration rules are temporary and part of the proposed change to the law on the admittance and expulsion of foreigners for the BES islands, the WTU BES, which caretaker Minister of Justice, Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Ernst Hirsch Ballin sent to the Second Chamber, also on behalf of State Secretary Ank Bijleveld-Schouten.

The proposal doesn't specify the exact restrictions that will become applicable to persons from Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten.

The proposed change concerns a transitional arrangement that will be enforced on the BES islands once these islands become part of the Netherlands per October 10, 2010, and will serve as a temporary solution until the new Kingdom Movement of Persons Act (Rijkswet Personenverkeer) is approved.

The transitional arrangement serves to protect the BES islands from an influx of persons with the Dutch nationality from other parts of the Dutch Kingdom. The arrangement makes an exception for Dutch citizens of Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten who were living in the BES islands for at least a year prior to the new public entity status.

The Explanatory Note states that the WTU BES will not be applicable to the so-called "island children" of Bonaire, Saba and St. Eustatius. Their right of movement and residency in the public entities is and will remain completely free and unlimited.

Children of a mother from one of the BES islands with Dutch nationality who travelled to Aruba, Curaçao, St. Maarten or the Netherlands to give birth in a hospital there are also considered "island children," so the WTU BES also will not apply to them.

Visitors to the BES islands will no longer have to fill in the embarkation and disembarkation card, the white immigration form of the Netherlands Antilles which foreigners, including Dutch Europeans, have to fill in when entering one of the island territories.

Dutch Government considers the immigration forms an "unnecessary obstruction" that resembles the visa waiver that some countries apply to foreigners.

The Kingdom Movement of Persons Act will regulate uniform rules for the movement of all persons with Dutch nationality in the Kingdom. The law's point of departure will be that the entry and access of Dutch citizens to the different parts of the Kingdom will be free and that as few restrictive conditions as possible will apply.

According to the Dutch Government, the new constitutional relations in the Kingdom are a reason to come to a solid regulation on the movement of persons to and within the Dutch Kingdom. The Council of State shares this view.

In the opinion of the Dutch Government, currently the rights are regulated inadequately and not uniform. This has created differences in the treatment of different groups of Dutch citizens.

"The entry and access to the territory of the European part of the Kingdom in principle is free for all Dutch citizens. However, this doesn't apply to the entry and access to Aruba and the Country the Netherlands Antilles. The LTUs of these two countries limit the entry and access of certain categories of Dutch citizens," it was stated in the Explanatory Note.

The Kingdom Movement of Persons Act should put an end to this situation, creating equal rights for people with Dutch nationality on both sides of the ocean.

(Source: The Daily Herald)

6 April 2010