THE HAGUE--Curaçao MP Quincy Girigorie of PAR delivered one of the sharper contributions at IPKO, challenging the Netherlands on what he described as a painful double standard: when the Netherlands faces migration pressures, the matter is treated as urgent, but when Curaçao was overwhelmed by the Venezuelan migration crisis and asked for help on human rights grounds, the answer was autonomy, “do it yourselves.”
Girigorie, a former Minister of Justice of Curaçao, pointed to two major examples from his own experience: the issue of TBS measures and the Venezuelan migration crisis. In both cases, he said, Curaçao sought support and cooperation from the Netherlands, but was effectively told to handle the matter on its own under the banner of autonomy.
Speaking during the IPKO panel discussion, Girigorie recalled the period when the court in Curaçao imposed its first TBS measure, a legal measure involving treatment under detention for persons who require psychiatric or behavioral treatment within the criminal justice system. He said the decision placed pressure on politics at the time and led him, as minister, to seek cooperation with the Netherlands.
Girigorie said he wrote to his colleague minister in the Netherlands and also had research carried out together with his then colleague from Aruba. That research, he said, showed that each person subject to TBS in the Netherlands would normally cost around one million euros.
“The islands would never, ever be able to pay that,” Girigorie said.
He said he raised the issue at the Judicial Four-Party Consultation, JVO, and asked the Netherlands to organize the matter jointly. The answer, according to Girigorie, was no.
“Do it yourselves,” he said, recalling the position taken at the time. Girigorie said he still has the letter in which that response was given.
Girigorie said the issue illustrates a larger problem in Kingdom cooperation. While the islands are autonomous and must carry their own responsibilities, he stressed that there are certain issues, especially those involving human rights, that small islands cannot solve alone and will never be able to solve alone at the standard expected within a European legal and human rights framework.
He then turned to the migration crisis Curaçao faced as a result of the economic collapse in Venezuela. Girigorie said he deliberately asked a question the previous day about the current migration crisis in the Netherlands because Curaçao had faced an even heavier migration crisis during and before the COVID period.
According to Girigorie, roughly 10 percent of Curaçao’s population was directly linked to the Venezuelan crisis. Aruba, he said, faced an even greater burden, with approximately 15 percent of its population under pressure from Venezuelan migration.
Girigorie said Curaçao asked for help, including on the basis of the European Convention on Human Rights, because the situation involved basic human rights concerns. He said he personally witnessed migrants being held in poor conditions, including in small spaces where they had to sleep daily, while Curaçao lacked the resources to properly manage the crisis.
He contrasted that experience with the way the migration issue is now being discussed in the Netherlands, where Dutch parliamentarians acknowledge the seriousness of the problem and call for change. When Curaçao faced a comparable or even more intense situation relative to its population, he said, the response from the Netherlands was that it was an autonomous matter for Curaçao to handle.
Girigorie said no city in the Netherlands would be expected to handle such a burden alone. Yet when it concerns Curaçao or another Caribbean island, he said, the answer is often autonomy.
The PAR MP emphasized that he believes in autonomy and in the responsibility of countries to manage their own affairs. He said he carried that responsibility as both minister and member of parliament. However, he said autonomy should not be used as a reason to deny cooperation on issues that the islands simply cannot manage alone.
He said the islands understand that there are dossiers where cooperation is necessary. The issue, according to Girigorie, is not that the islands refuse responsibility or expect others to do everything for them. Rather, he said, the problem is the lack of willingness from the Netherlands to provide meaningful cooperation, even when that cooperation does not necessarily require direct financial support.
Girigorie said the Netherlands could provide capacity, expertise and institutional support, but too often the islands are instead criticized from a position of superiority and told that they cannot manage their own affairs.
“After so many years of the existence of the Kingdom, my starting point is that we should be able to deal with one another differently,” Girigorie said.
He asked why meaningful cooperation remains so difficult on serious issues such as migration, TBS, human rights and education. He stressed that these are not matters of political appointments, but fundamental issues affecting the daily functioning of the islands and the rights of people living there.
Responding to Girigorie, Maria van der Sluijs-Plantz, Chairwoman of the Evaluation Committee for the Mutual Arrangement for Cooperation on Reforms, said he was “preaching to the converted.” She said she strongly supports cooperation and noted that the evaluation of the reform cooperation showed that, although the process began from a position of deep mutual distrust, trust has started to grow among teams of civil servants working together.
Van der Sluijs-Plantz said she had seen teams from the countries and the Temporary Work Organization work together in ways that showed problems can be solved jointly. She said the key is to listen with the intention to understand, not with the attitude of telling another country what to do.
Quoting her St. Maarten grandmother, Van der Sluijs-Plantz said: “God gave you two ears and one mouth, use it proportionally.”
She said the cooperation process has shown a small but important sign of hope, and that the trust that has been planted must now be allowed to grow.
Girigorie, however, pointed to the political tone in the Netherlands as a continuing obstacle. He referred to a remark made the previous day by a Dutch MP who said the islands were “not even worth one euro.” Girigorie said that while cooperation may be improving at the civil service level, the political level in the Netherlands must better understand what is really happening on the islands.
He urged members of the Dutch Second and First Chambers to recognize the seriousness of the issues facing the Caribbean countries and to work with them in a spirit of genuine partnership.
“Please, understand what is really happening on the islands and let us truly cooperate, because that attitude does not help,” Girigorie said.
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