The Netherlands has antidiscrimination laws and hate speech laws on the books. In 2021, the government introduced the position of national coordinator against racism and discrimination. The national coordinator, who began work in October, is tasked with creating a national antidiscrimination program.
Rising anti-immigrant sentiment in recent years has been accompanied by more open expression of anti-Islamic views. Muslims and people with a migrant background experience harassment and intimidation. Persistent labor market discrimination on ethnic grounds, of older people, of pregnant women, and of disabled people continued to be documented in 2021.
Antisemitism in the Netherlands has risen in recent years, with one NGO reporting a 35 percent increase in antisemitic incidents between 2020 and 2021. In April 2021, the government appointed Eddo Verdoner as national coordinator for combating antisemitism (NCAB).
In September 2021, a Dutch court ruled that security forces could use ethnicity as a factor in selecting individuals for security checks at the border. Rights groups condemned the verdict as “harmful,” and vowed to appeal. In November, the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee—a gendarmerie that performs border controls—announced that it would no longer use ethnic profiling when conducting security checks.
Dutch asylum policies have long drawn criticism for being unduly harsh. In June 2021, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled that by refusing to consider the claims of applicants who had previously been rejected over documentation concerns, Dutch asylum policies were incompatible with EU law.
Additionally, the UN Human Rights Committee has urged the government to review its legislation and establish a procedure for determining statelessness in recent years. In February 2021, a parliamentary vote moved to allow roughly 10,000 stateless refugees to apply for Dutch citizenship; however, implementation of the motion was delayed several times before being carried out in July.
The Caribbean islands that are part of the Netherlands lack well-developed asylum procedures. NGOs continue to call for more government action to support Venezuelan refugees on Aruba and Curaçao. In March 2021, authorities in Curaçao announced that undocumented migrants meeting certain conditions would be allowed to apply for residence permits. Curaçao’s justice ministry also announced in June that aid workers and relatives would be given access to asylum seekers who had been detained.
