Thursday, February 28, 2019

Staff at Asylum Seeker Centers Feel Unsafe


The staff at Asylum Seeker Centers feel continually unsafe.  They are either threatened verbally and/or physically and also witness violence, sometimes with knives between asylum seekers.  In the past, these were incidents.  Now, however, it seems as if this is a structural problem.  This results from more than 60 complaints which in the last two weeks reached the monitoring center of the FNV trade union for unsafe working conditions at asylum centers.   


Wednesday, February 27, 2019

Many Dutch Municipalities Have No Money


A study by the accountants and consultancy bureau, BDO, has found that many Dutch municipalities have no money.  The worsening financial situation, according to the researchers, will lead to  municipalities being supervised by the national authorities.  The problems result from a variety of additional social tasks the municipalities have been given since 2015.
https://www.ad.nl/binnenland/veel-gemeenten-zitten-op-zwart-zaad~a645ef48/



Monday, February 25, 2019

Million Dutch Houses may Subside


Due to the extreme dry summer there are problems with the fundaments of about a million homes. The Center which deals with problems of fundaments of homes (KCAF) says that there is a huge number of complaints. Every day new ones come. One out of four houses built before 1970 are at risk. One out of four may subside. Normally there is one complaint a week. Since the summer there are one or two every day. Sometimes an entire group of houses threatens to subside.

Sunday, February 24, 2019

Swastikas on Holocaust Memorial in Amsterdam



Swastikas and antisemitic graffiti were found on a Holocaust memorial and various buildings in Amsterdam.  They were vandalized with green and yellow paint, the colors of the Ado soccer team from The Hague.  Today, ADO will play the major Amsterdam team, AJAX, in Amsterdam.  It is suspected that the vandalism was carried out by ADO fans.  The director of ADO issued a statement condemning the vandalism.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/vandals-daub-swastikas-anti-semitic-texts-on-dutch-buildings-holocaust-statue/

Thursday, February 21, 2019

Huge Drug Smuggling at Amsterdam Airport



The military police mentions that a smuggling organization from Africa has carried out huge drug smuggling of heroin and cocaine at Amsterdam airport. Corrupt employees took suitcases from the luggage area and gave them to catering or cleaning personnel. These brought them outside the airport as they had fee access to it with their passes.

Wednesday, February 20, 2019

New locomotives break down several times per day


The New Sprinter next generation locomotives of the Dutch NS Railway company is reported to be experiencing many malfunctions. Last Friday there were 8 non-voluntary stops. The company has admitted that it is experiencing problems and says it is normal for a new type of train.



Tuesday, February 19, 2019

Childrens’ Ombudsman: Dutch Tax Authority Ignored Childrens’ Rights


The Ombudsman for Children Margrite Kalverboer said that the Dutch tax authority acted contrary to the Convention on Rights of the Child when in 2014, it discontinued the child care allowance for over 200 families.  In 2017, the National Ombudsman published a damning report about what had gone wrong in the case. A newspaper report found that the tax authority deliberately rejected parents objections and withheld internal documents during court proceedings launched by parents.

https://nltimes.nl/2019/02/18/dutch-tax-authority-ignored-childrens-rights-abolishing-childcare-allowance-childrens

Sunday, February 17, 2019

Young teens subjected to sexually abusive text messages


A doctorate thesis by Gaby de Lijster from Maastricht University, found that children as young as 12-14 years old, are already dealing with unwanted sexual behavior and sexual abusive text messages.  Her research shows that a third of girls whose average is 14, have already faced unwanted sexual behavior. A fifth of boys said the same thing.  Fourteen percent of respondents said they have participated in sexting.

https://nltimes.nl/2019/02/14/many-pre-teens-subjected-sexually-abusive-text-messages-phd

Thursday, February 14, 2019

Dutch Soldiers Take Ministry of Defense to Court


Dutch soldiers of the Dutchbat battalion, a part of the U.N. forces in Srebrenica, are taking the Dutch Ministry of Defense to court.  They say that they were not protected against asbestos, radiation, and other poisonous materials in the location in which they served.  According to their commander, Thom Karremans, the soldiers should never have been located in the heavily damaged and dirty factory for car batteries.  The Ministry of Defense says that the soldiers had not been submitted to undue risk, however, it admits that they were not sufficiently informed.

Tuesday, February 12, 2019

Dutch government commissions report against Israel's Supreme Court


The Dutch government commissioned and financed a report by an extremist Israeli NGO B’Tselem.  The report attacks Israel's Supreme Court regarding its decisions and construction planning in the West Bank.  The Dutch government specified the reports goals.

https://www.jpost.com/printarticle.aspx?id=580304

Monday, February 11, 2019

More Sex Crimes Recorded in The Netherlands


Almost 9,000 people told the police that they had been the victim of a sex crime in 2018 compared with 8,400 in 2017. This results from figures published by the CBS, the Dutch Statistics Office. Some research suggests that only 4 in 10 people who suffer violent abuse or sex crimes, go to the police.
www.dutchnews.nl/news/2019/02/rise-in-reported-sex-crime-cbs/

Sunday, February 10, 2019

Amsterdam: Ten Kilometers of Quay Walls in Bad Condition



An external researcher, Peter Cloo, has undertaken a report on the neglect of maintenance of bridges and quays in Amsterdam over the past decades.  He came to the conclusion that getting the maintenance of civil construction in the city back on par is a complex, major and extremely urgent task.  Six bridges are in such bad shape that immediate intervention is necessary.  Of the 200 kilometers of quay walls, at least 10 kilometers are in very poor condition with an increased risk of collapse.  The daily, Het Parool, wrote that 2 billion Euro may be required in the long-term to get the city’s infrastructure back into shape.
https://nltimes.nl/2019/02/07/amsterdam-tackle-neglected-bridges-quays

Wednesday, February 6, 2019

More than 100,000 Children Abused every Year



More than 100,000 children in the Netherlands are abused each year. Over 700,000 Dutch adults faced domestic violence at least once over the past five year. This results from a study by the scientific research and documentation center WODC. This is part of the ministry of justice and security.

Tuesday, February 5, 2019

Amsterdam Firemen have no Confidence in Management


A group of Amsterdam Firemen threatens actions in an anonymous letter. They say that they have no confidence in the management. The current commander Leen Schaap has even received death threats. He had been appointed to end the sexism and racism in the organization.
https://www.ad.nl/binnenland/brandweer-amsterdam-zegt-vertrouwen-in-leiding-op~a5a68c0e/

Sunday, February 3, 2019

Advocate General Denies Dutch State Responsibility for Srebrenica Massacre


The Hague court has ruled that the Dutch state is partly accountable for the deaths of approximately 300 Muslim men after the fall of the Bosnian Muslim enclave, Srebrenica, in 1995.  The Advocate General denies in his recent advice to the Supreme Court that the U.N. Battalion, Dutchbat, is liable for the deaths of the Muslim men.
https://nltimes.nl/2019/02/01/dutch-state-unjustly-held-accountable-srebrenica-massacre-advocate-general-says