BAKU says Dutch colonial policy is reshaping Bonaire’s population

THE HAGUE--The Baku Initiative Group, BIG, has accused the Netherlands of using policy and migration pressure to weaken the position of Bonaire’s native people, arguing that the island’s demographic changes are not simply social or economic trends, but part of a deeper colonial reality.

The group’s argument is based in part on Dutch population figures showing that the share of Bonaire residents born on the island fell from 42 percent in 2011 to 30 percent in 2025, while the share born in the European Netherlands rose from 11 percent to 17 percent. Dutch statistics also show a rise in residents from South and Central America during the same period.

The organization argues that migration patterns, housing pressure, and the broader policy direction of the Netherlands are steadily changing who holds social, economic, and eventually political power on Bonaire. Its warning is that local communities are being pushed aside in their own homeland, while the growing weight of newcomers could weaken the voting strength and public voice of Bonaire’s native population.

That position is broadly in line with concerns voiced for years by actors on Bonaire itself, including the Bonaire Human Rights Organization. BHRO presents its work as part of a longer struggle for self-determination and decolonization, and says it exists to defend the rights of vulnerable and marginalized people through activism, public awareness, and human rights advocacy. On its own platform, BHRO argues that Bonaire’s people need structural protection through international law and renewed recognition of their right to determine their own future.

BHRO has also linked present-day governance issues to colonial structures more generally. Earlier this year, during a United Nations forum, the organization argued that real equality cannot take hold where colonial systems, concentrated economic power, and corrupt political practices deny communities meaningful participation in shaping their future. That broader line of argument closely matches BIG’s latest position that demographic change on Bonaire cannot be separated from questions of power, identity, representation, and control.

BIG’s advocacy has not been limited to Bonaire. The group has also become involved in St. Maarten, where it signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the One St. Martin Association. BIG committed support for efforts tied to a referendum on independence for St. Maarten. The same report described BIG as an organization that backs movements it believes are living without true self-government, including through legal support and lobbying assistance.

BIG has also tied today’s demographic and political debate to the longer history of Dutch colonialism and slavery. The group recently pointed to what it described as the brutal consequences of the Dutch slave trade, under which hundreds of thousands of Africans were forcibly taken across the Atlantic, many of them into Dutch-controlled plantation economies in Suriname, the Antilles, and Brazil. By raising that history alongside present-day demographic concerns, BIG is making the case that current migration and governance patterns should be understood not as isolated policy outcomes, but as part of a continuing colonial structure. The historical scale of Dutch slave trading, including the number of Africans shipped and the number who survived the crossing, is supported by established historical research, though exact figures vary somewhat by source.

What makes the issue especially sensitive is that the population data are real, even if the interpretation is contested. Dutch statistics confirm that the locally born share of Bonaire’s population has declined markedly since 2011, while the share born in the European Netherlands has grown. BIG and BHRO interpret that shift as evidence of displacement and colonial imbalance.

Others may argue that the changes reflect labor demand, open movement within the Kingdom, or wider regional migration trends. But politically, the core issue being raised is clear: if the original people of Bonaire become a smaller share of the population over time, questions of democratic representation, cultural survival, and self-determination become harder to ignore.

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