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Dutch state faces payout of almost €6 million for gold heist

SINT MAARTEN/THE NETHERLANDS – If the Romanian artifacts stolen from the Drents Museum in Assen are not found, the Netherlands will have to stump up €5.8 million in compensation, the education ministry has confirmed, according to a report by local broadcaster RTV Drenthe.

The museum is only liable for the own risk element in an arrangement in which the Dutch state takes the lion’s share of the guarantee against theft and damage to valuable objects lent to Dutch museums. High insurance premiums would otherwise cripple museums.

If the objects are found the ministry will also have to pay for any damage to them.

Last year, the state guaranteed almost €460 million worth of art lent to 13 museums.

It is unclear when a claim for compensation would be filed.  Police have arrested three people in connection with the theft and are looking for a fourth suspect.

The gang are accused of making off with some of Romania’s most treasured artifacts, including the golden helmet of Cotofenesti, crafted from almost pure gold and dating from 500 BC, along with three gold armbands, all part of the country’s Dacian heritage.

Since then, the director of the Romanian National History Museum in Bucharest, who lent the objects to the Drents Museum, has been fired over alleged irregularities over the export licence.

The incident has strained relations between the two countries. Romanian prime minister Marcel Ciolacu said in a statement he was “like all Romanians, outraged” and that the Dutch state is “entirely responsible for the robbery”.

(DutchNews)

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Labour migrants have jobs, housing is the problem: CNV

SINT MAARTEN/THE NETHERLANDS – Urgent action needs to be taken to tackle the number of foreign workers who are ending up living on the streets in the Netherlands, according to the CNV trade union federation and the Salvation Army.

In particular, a solution for short-term accommodation needs to be set up, because “most of them can get another job quickly,” the organisations say.

Six towns and cities, including Eindhoven and The Hague, are already experimenting with temporary accommodation. “In Eindhoven, 60% found another job within nine days and 20% opted to go back home,” Salvation Army chief Harm Slomp told the Telegraaf.

CNV chairman Piet Fortuin is now hoping that social affairs minister Eddy van Hijum will help fund the project. Next week parliament is due to debate the impact of labour migration in the Netherlands.

“There is enough work, that is not the problem,” he said. “And employers too benefit if these people do not end up on streets.”

Some 10,000 mainly Eastern Europeans are now thought to be sleeping rough in the Netherlands. “They are picked off the streets in countries such as Romania and Bulgaria and taken to work as soon as they arrive,” Slomp said.

If the work dries up or they are sacked, many also lose their accommodation, which is provided by their employer.

Van Hijum did announce on Thursday that employers will no longer be allowed to deduct the cost of accommodation directly from the salaries of people who are paid a minimum wage.

Currently they can withhold 25% of their earnings to pay for housing, but this will be reduced in 5% increments to zero by 2030, the minister said. The current system, is being used as an “earnings model” by unscrupulous employers.

The social affairs ministry has also agreed to establish its own agency to certify staffing agencies in an effort to eliminate dodgy companies that underpay and exploit workers from outside the Netherlands.

The legislation has been stalled for almost a year.

Poor conditions

The aim of the legislation is to ensure that only certified companies supply staff to Dutch firms, particularly in low-skilled sectors such as farm work and meat processing.

“Many labour migrants live and work in poor conditions,” Van Hijum said last month. “Bad staffing agencies have made underpayment and the provision of poor housing part of their earnings model.”

According to some estimates, there are currently 14,000 staffing agencies operating in the Netherlands. Some 500,000 people from other EU countries work in Netherlands, mainly in farming, distribution centres, factories and the meat industry.

(DutchNews)

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ING profits hit €6.39bn, bank under fire over oil investments

SINT MAARTEN/THE NETHERLANDS – ING booked a net profit of €6.39 billion last year, down 12% on 2023, the biggest Dutch bank announced at the publication of its annual figures on Thursday.

Q4 net profit dropped almost 26% to €1.15 billion compared to the same period in 2023. Analysts told news agency Bloomberg they had expected a Q4 profit of €1.26 billion.

An increase in the number of credit accounts, loans, and savings contributed to a full-year turnover of €22.6 billion, up marginally on 2023’s figure.

Meanwhile, campaign groups Somo and Milieudefensie claimed on Thursday that ING is under-reporting its investments in oil and gas, suggesting the actual investments could be 10 times higher than registered in official documents.

“ING uses a very narrow definition of upstream in its reporting, looking only at the company classification code and not whether a company is starting new oil and gas fields,” Somo said.

Van Rijswijk dismissed the report as “rubbish.” “We report in line with the accountancy regulations,” he was quoted as saying in Dutch media.

Earlier this week, chief executive Steven van Rijswijk told news agency Reuters that the bank is back on the takeover trail.

“We want to get bigger in bigger markets, including Italy, Spain, and Germany,” Van Rijswijk said. “M&A (mergers and acquisitions) is an option everywhere if it would suit our criteria.”

(DutchNews)

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Climate minister may halve wind turbine distance from homes

SINT MAARTEN/THE NETHERLANDS – Climate minister Sophie Hermans reportedly wants to “temporarily” ignore MPs’ demands to set a legal distance between wind turbines and homes in order to “push through” projects, sources have told the Telegraaf.

MPs earlier asked the minister to adopt a distance of at least four times the length of a turbine and to introduce a limit to noise and low-frequency levels, rules already applied in countries like Denmark.

If brought in, the distance rule would mean a sharp cut in the number of turbines which can be located in the Dutch countryside. Now Hermans is thinking about  halving that distance norm in order to develop an extra 100 wind parks before 2030, inside sources told the paper.

Noise from wind turbines can affect sleep, leading to other health problems, research has shown. According to high profile doctor Diederik Gommers, turbines can cause neurological problems and should be placed at least two kilometres away from residential areas.

The Council of State also ruled earlier that people who live near wind farms are not properly protected against the potential effects of turbine noise on health.

A spokesman for the minister said the discussion about the subject is ongoing and that any decision on the matter would be communicated to MPs.

There is currently no national legal minimum distance in the Netherlands between turbines and built-up areas, which has led to protests across the country  – particularly in places where local authorities want to place turbines within 600 metres of people’s homes, currently the broad standard.

The legal noise level is 47 decibels, measured outside the house, but much of the noise created by wind farms depends on the type of turbine and wind direction, and varies according to the weather.

In Amsterdam, the city council has pledged to go to court and overturn a provincial ban on plans to build three wind turbines on the edge of a lake in Amsterdam-Noord.

The three 200 metre-high turbines, part of a 17 turbine project, are a key part of the city council’s sustainability plans to provide green energy for 200,000 households.

But campaigners say they are too big and too close to hundreds of homes.

(DutchNews)

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Police reopen cold case rape by man with prosthetic hand

SINT MAARTEN/THE NETHERLANDS – Amersfoort police are making a new effort to find a man with a false hand who raped a 17-year-old girl in November 1995.

The girl was attacked in a road underpass after a night out close to the city’s main railway station at around 5 am. During the attack, the rapist told the girl about his false hand, saying he was “the only person in Amersfoort to have one”.

Even though the police have DNA evidence, they have never managed to trace the man, hence this new attempt to find witnesses almost 30 years on.

“Detectives did a major investigation in 1995 and later,” the police said in a statement. “In 2018 we were able to put together a DNA profile of the attacker, which was not a match in the DNA databank. Similar probes in 2021 and 2023 also drew a blank.”

reconstruction of the crime was broadcast on a television crimes show on Tuesday evening.

Police say they hope the combination of the artificial hand and 1990s Amersfoort will jog people’s memories. “Knowing that we have DNA may lower the threshold and encourage them to come forward,” the statement said. “We expect him to be over the age of 50.”

Some 5,000 to 6,000 people in the Netherlands have a prosthetic hand.

(DutchNews)

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Private education on the rise in the Netherlands, inspectors say

SINT MAARTEN/THE NETHERLANDS – More wealthy parents in Netherlands are opting for private schools because they feel their children will receive an education more suited to their needs than in state schools, a survey by the education inspectorate has shown.

The number of private schools in the Netherlands has tripled in just eight years, school inspectors found. There are now some 134 primary and secondary private schools across the country, compared to 44 in 2015.

The schools are not subsidised and fees can run up to between €25,000 and €35,000 a year. The Netherlands also has some 53 international schools, which are also fee-paying.

Regular schools do not “move with the times” and the changing social needs, according to some of the schools’ founders.  Parents also want education to reflect their outlook on life, they say.

Other parents said state schools did not meet their child’s educational needs and they were unhappy there. Highly gifted children, or children who are highly sensitive, autistic or challenged in other social-emotional ways thrive at private schools where class sizes are smaller and children benefit from more individual attention, they said.

Experts have said the rise in private schools is worrying. “The Dutch education system is geared towards equality. How rich people are plays a relatively minor role,” education sociologist Dieuwke Zwier told RTL Nieuws.

Private schools upset the idea of equal opportunity and accessibility to education, she said. Private schools are beyond most people’s means, and an educational divide can also affect the social fabric of society. Children who go to private schools are less likely to meet children from other backgrounds, she said.

“It is understandable from an individual point of view if you have the means and are dissatisfied with regular education,” Zwiers said. “But you have to ask if this is doing society any favours. Not all children can go to a private school and it is the children who don’t come from an affluent background who would benefit the most from a good education,” she said.

There are some lessons to be learned by regular schools, school inspector Lucas Verbunt said. For example, some children cannot cope at regular schools for a variety of reasons and either stay at home or go to private schools.

“Private schools should not be an emergency solution for those children,” he said.  “There must be a place for every child in regular education. Private schools are a way of expressing preference for a certain type of education, not because it is a last resort.”

(DutchNews)

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Prime Minister Dr. Luc Mercelina Returns from Curaçao

SINT MAARTEN (GREAT BAY) - The Honorable Prime Minister Dr. Luc Mercelina has successfully concluded a brief work visit to Curaçao, where he participated in pivotal discussions that continue to shape the future of Sint Maarten and the broader Dutch Caribbean from January 30 to February 2, 2025.

One of the central events of the visit was the Footprints of Government in the Economy Symposium, hosted by the Central Bank of Curaçao and Sint Maarten (CBCS). The symposium tackled the challenges and opportunities in balancing economic development with sustainability and good governance.

Reflecting on the experience, Prime Minister Mercelina remarked, "Sitting in that room, surrounded by colleague Prime Minister of Curaçao Gilmar Pisas and Prime Minister of Aruba Evelyn Wever-Croes, and experts who are deeply passionate about building a brighter future for our Dutch Caribbean islands, was inspiring. It reaffirmed my belief that together, we can achieve so much more. I had the opportunity to share Sint Maarten’s story and the realities we all collectively face— how we’re navigating economic recovery and what we should do together — and the response was overwhelmingly supportive."

Beyond the symposium, the Prime Minister had a critical meeting at the U.S. Consulate in Curaçao regarding a number of pressing issues. Additionally, he met with Curaçao’s Prime Minister Gilmar Pisas and Minister of Finance Javier Silvania, focusing on ways to strengthen ties through innovative fiscal policies and trade collaborations.

"The meetings with Prime Minister Pisas and Minister Silvania weren’t just about policy—it was about recognizing the potential we have as partners. There’s so much we can achieve when we break down silos and work together for the good of our people," the Prime Minister noted.

A key highlight of the visit was the follow-up meeting with the Regulatory Authority of Curaçao (RAC), stemming from initial discussions previously held in Sint Maarten. Prime Minister Mercelina met with RAC CEO Curt Belfor to continue exploring solutions to alleviate high electricity and water bills on Sint Maarten.

"Addressing the rising cost of utilities remains a top priority for my administration. This follow-up discussion with RAC builds on the groundwork laid in Sint Maarten, reinforcing our commitment to seeking practical and effective solutions for our people. We are determined to explore every available avenue to provide relief to households and businesses," Prime Minister Mercelina stated.

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Cancer diagnoses up, doctors call for prostate cancer screening

SINT MAARTEN/THE NETHERLANDS – Some 130,000  people were diagnosed with cancer last year, up 3,000 from 2023, cancer centre IKNL has said.

Population growth and longer life expectancy are the main drivers behind the rise, the IKNL said.  With over 15,000 new diagnoses, prostate cancer and breast cancer cases are now practically on a par, the figures show.

Unlike breast cancer, prostate cancer has more often spread to different parts of the body before it is discovered. In 2023, 3,000 men had metastasised prostate cancer while in 1,000 women the breast cancer was found to have spread.

In 2023, the figures for prostate cancer deaths superseded those for breast cancer for the first time.

Screening

Early prostate cancer does not have any symptoms but there is currently no national screening programme to speed up diagnoses.

Early diagnosis and accessible care remain key, urologist Harm Melick told broadcaster NOS.  “There is no such programme in place anywhere in the world at the moment,” Melick said.

“In Europe, the discussions about the need for one started five years ago but the biopsies which it would necessitate were thought to be too painful for routine screening and risky because of infection.”

Some of the cancers that were discovered through biopsies were mild and did not need treatment, Melick said. Newer methods, such as MRI scans are less invasive and can show the difference between mild and more aggressive tumours, he said.

“Biopsies could be fewer and more targetted. With these improvements and the increase in diagnoses it is important to investigate the possibility of a screening programme,” Melick said.

MRI scans for women who have dense breast tissue and whose cancer goes undetected have been considered too expensive for routine screening. The UMC Utrecht is currently trialling two alternative methods: a short five-minute MRI scan and a so-called contrast scan, a 2D scan combined with a contrasting fluid injected into the patient beforehand which makes potential tumours more visible.

(DutchNews)

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Seven murdered in Amsterdam last year by “disturbed” individuals

SINT MAARTEN/THE NETHERLANDS – At least seven people were stabbed to death in Amsterdam last year by someone with psychiatric issues, according to new police figures issued on Monday.

The murder rate in Amsterdam soared from 12 to 20 last year and in 14 cases, the victim was stabbed to death. In seven of those cases, the killer had mental health issues.

The police have warned several times about the number of call outs they get to deal with people with psychiatric issues and say the increase is leading to public concern.

“There have been multiple cases in which people have formed a danger to themselves and others in broad daylight,” the report said.

The city has now started a pilot project to centralise reports about people causing trouble because they have mental health issues, involving police, the regional health boards and city officials.

“People can make a report to one number and the experts are there to make sure people don’t fall through the cracks,” mayor Femke Halsema said. “We are doing what we can and we are aware the local system can do better. But we can’t do it alone. The city needs more help from national government.”

The police registered almost 150,000 reports of problems caused by people with psychiatric issues last year, a rise of 6% on 2023, according to annual figures published last month by the national force.

The number of mental health call-outs has been rising steadily for years and includes serious as well as minor incidents, police say.

“Think about the hostage-taking in Ede last year, or murder and sex crimes,” said Noord-Nederland police chief Martin Sitalsing at the time. “We have to act in cases where the safety of the public is at risk. But in many cases, the people we are called out to deal with need help and care.”

The current situation, he said, is not the most effective use of police time, given that police officers are not care workers.

“Much more focus needs to be placed on providing help and care so we can stop these incidents from happening,” he said. “The government must make this a priority and allocate sufficient funding.”

Fewer robberies

The police figures also show 24% drop in the number of pickpocketing incidents in the Dutch capital and a similar reduction in armed robberies.

However, there was a sharp rise in the number of attacks on business premises and private homes involving explosives – 251 in 2024 compared with 208 in 2023.

The city’s force has a permanent shortage of some 300 officers and public safety is at risk if more is not done to make up the numbers, Halsema said.

(DutchNews)

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Launching rijkscultuurfondsen.org: funding guide for the Caribbean islands

SINT MAARTEN (GREAT BAY) - As of the 28th of January, cultural organisations and creators on Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, St. Eustatius and Sint Maarten can visit rijkscultuurfondsen.org. This new website serves as a clear and accessible guide to the six rijkscultuurfondsen, where a selection of grant opportunities can be found. 

Why rijkscultuurfondsen.org?
The website was created in consultation with cultural creators and organisations on the Caribbean Islands. Conversations, working visits and exchanges, led to the idea of setting up a digital hub where creators and organisations can easily find a suitable fund and relevant grant schemes. Rijkscultuurfondsen.org is a central platform that guides applicants, step by step to the opportunities that best suit their cultural plans.


Find the right grant in two steps

One of the main features of the website is the digital application help; a customised filter tool that allows users to discover the grant schemes that best suit their cultural plans within two steps.

In addition, the website provides summaries of selected grant schemes from each fund, available in four languages: English, Papiamentu, Papiamento and Dutch. Once the most suitable scheme is identified, users are directed to the website of the corresponding fund. 

Gilia Croes, policy officer Education, Culture and Science Caribbean Netherlands (OCW), about rijkscultuurfondsen.org: “The cultural field in the Caribbean is brimming with potential, yet many creatives are often hesitant to dive into the vast ocean of cultural subsidies, unsure of how to explore the opportunities available to them.

This online hub serves as a compass, offering support to Caribbean creatives in navigating these deep waters. By providing pathways to financial resources, it empowers them to tap into the possibilities that can help unlock success and realize the full potential of Caribbean creatives.”

For creators across the Kingdom
The national culture funds are committed to making art and culture accessible to everyone, both in European and Caribbean Netherlands. They encourage innovation, talent development and connection between creators, organisations and audiences throughout the Kingdom.

The website was designed by Aruban designer Carla Garcia and underlines this connection: "The visual identity of Rijkscultuurfondsen.org is inspired by the cultural heritage of the Caribbean part of the Kingdom. The design concept emphasises intersections, connections, and borders, visually representing collaborations and shared paths.” 

Six national cultural funds
The website is managed on behalf of the six national culture funds: the Netherlands Film Fund, Performing Arts Fund NL, Fund for Cultural Participation, Mondriaan Fund, Dutch Foundation for Literature and the Creative Industries Fund NL.

These funds, financed by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW), provide financial support to cultural organisations and creators throughout the Kingdom. Together, they fund all cultural disciplines: architecture, digital culture, design, visual arts, cultural heritage, film, literature, performing arts and cultural participation and education.

Visit rijkscultuurfondsen.org to find out how the rijkscultuurfondsen can support your cultural plans.

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