Helen Hintjens uses the way the Dutch authorities responded to a school fire in the Hague and one in a detention centre at Schipol airport to comment on the treatment meted out to asylum seekers in the Netherlands. It was raining in the Hague, on Monday 16 January. Standing on the corner, a crowd of
Geography: Netherlands
Netherlands: anti-immigration and the road to intolerance
Dutch Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner has this week advocated the idea of a two-tier justice system in which foreigners who commit crime would be sentenced differently from Dutch nationals. How has a country which once had a reputation for tolerance descended to such illiberalism? During the second half of 2004, the Dutch government will