DUTCH MPS COMPLAIGN ABOUT GOVERNMENT BEING TOO SOFT ON DIFFICULT MIGRANT YOUNGSTERS

The Lower House considers that the cabinet treats the misbehaviour of young people from immigrant backgrounds with velvet gloves. A cross-party majority wants to penalise parents if they refuse to accept help in raising their children, but the government does not consider this feasible.

In a meeting with the Amsterdam mayor Job Cohen, Moroccan youngsters, parents and organisations indicated that they want to deal with the annoyance themselves. Representatives of Dutch Moroccan organisations expressed that their is a need for parents to keep track of what their children are doing. They stated that they will control if this really happens in practise.

The meeting took place after a few incidents with Dutch Moroccan youngsters in different neighbourhoods in Amsterdam. Mayor Cohen organised a meeting with all the neighbourhood councils to talk about the incidents. He said that he fear riot-like situations like last year in France. In the upcoming weeks more meetings are planned with local residents, youngsters and administrators.

The unscheduled Lower House debate was requested by MP Geert Wilders, also prompted by thr incidents in recent months, primarily in Amsterdam, where violence, intimidation, threats and vandalism are frequent. These activities, mostly carried out by young Moroccans and Antilleans, are aimed in particular at Jews, homosexuals and women.

"The youngsters we are talking about are not impressed by our dialogues, pedagogues and lenient community service penalties," was how small Christian party SGP MP Kees van der Staaij worded the dissatisfaction of the Lower House. The MPs pressed for a much tougher approach to "street terror". Only left-wing Green (Groen Links) MP Marijke Vos considered that this term went too far. Special attention was paid during the debate to the parents, since it is said that they frequently stand aloof from or are unaware of the actions of their children. Some parties claimed that parents sometimes fail to intervene because of their own hatred of Dutch society.

The three coalition parties, the Christian democrats (CDA), conservatives (VVD) and centre-left D66, want the cabinet to produce proposals hitting parents financially if they refuse counselling for their criminal children. But Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner (CDA) warned that it would probably be legally impossible to implement a penalty of this nature.

A proposal for re-educating unmanageable youngsters in boarding-school type facilities will probably also be backed by a majority of MPs. The CDA hopes this will "isolate the small core of problem youngsters who cause trouble". Without the support of others, MP Wilders pressed for the expulsion of young Moroccan criminals to Morocco if they commit three crimes. There already are different experimental and mostly successful Dutch boarding schools for young wrong-doers.

In their smearing campaign populist right wing politicians try to blacken the reputation of young Moroccans and Antilleans. The facts that expulsion is most of the time impossible since the youngsters are Dutch, and that more isolation of the migrant youngsters might mean that they become even more difficult, are mostly neglected. All the successful initiatives to fight the problems with migrant youngsters, often set-up by Dutch Moroccans, were not mentioned or discussed. In all the neighbourhoods were riots or disturbances took place special projects were initiated to give the lost part of the Moroccan youngsters more attention and a better future. more features

February 20, 2006