WILLEMSTAD.- Dutch Ombudsman Reinier van Zutphen asked Dutch parliamentarians to meet to discuss the crisis of the Venezuelan refugees in Curaçao and Aruba. This was on the website koninkrijksrelaties.nu. Van Zutphen wants to deliberate this matter, with the commission of the Dutch Parliament for Kingdom Relations.
The task of the Ombudsman is normally only for Holland and the BES islands. But Van Zutphen can also deliberate on other matters or developments within the Dutch Kingdom. Recently Van Zutphen announced that in his opinion the Dutch Kingdom is obliged to help Curaçao and Aruba with the problem of undocumented Venezuelans. The date on which Van Zutphen will meet with parliamentarians is not known until now.
Between April 26 and May 13, Dutch Parliamentarians are free of meetings. During the first period, delegations of the Parliament of Aruba, Curaçao and San Martin traveled to Holland to discuss this issue with members of the Dutch Parliament, who are part of the Kingdom Relations Commission. The meetings were held behind closed doors. The President of the Parliament of Curaçao William Millerson, after the meeting explained; that most of the politicians in Holland could not understand the enormous impact that the crisis in Venezuela has on Curaçao. Curaçao already suffers from many problems related to the situation in our neighboring country.
For example, business between the two countries has fallen drastically, there are no tourists coming as before from Venezuela and the Refinery does not operate due to lack of oil. Another point is that Curaçao has problems with the unemployment of its own people, but more and more Venezuelans come to Curaçao to work and they do so by agreeing with the employers, wages below the laws. This has a negative impact on the community.
