Outsiders and Insiders

The children of the asylum seeker

This week the Court of The Hague has made a verdict in the case of the children of an Angolan asylum seeker which is regarded by many as a break-through. The woman's request for asylum was turned down as were her appeals. She refuses to go back to Angola however.

The state has refused to take care of the woman and her brood any longer. The asylum seeker centre Ter Apel have said she will be expelled from the centre in September or therabouts. The women went to court and demanded ongoing care, shelter and education for her brood from the state arguing that the state is is responsible to her and her offspring even while she and the father disobey the law.

The The Hague Court ruled that international treaties such as the European Social Charter and the International Convention of the Rights of the Child oblige the state to take care of the needs of the children. Not supporting them is a wrongful act.

The Minister of the Interior, Ernst Hirsch Ballin, has to react within a month.

A Dutch Court and pirates from the gulf of Aden

More from Dutch Courts. In June a Court in the port city of Rotterdam ruled in a case brought by the state against five Somali Pirates for hyjacking a ship registered in the Dutch Antilles, and therefore part of the Kingdom of The Netherlands. The pirates had been arrested in the Gulf of Aden by a Danish Navy crew, from a Danish ship which is part of a international anti-piracy flottilla.

The flottilla is suppossed to protect the trading shipping which carries commerce between the major civilisations. Because the attack on the ship took not place in Dutch waters it was questionable whether the Rotterdam court and Dutch law would apply to the case at all. The ruling of the Rotterdam court was that the court and Dutch law were relevant to the case and sentenced the pirates to five years in prison in The Netherlands. The pirates announced their intention to apply for asylum once their term was up.

Being broad-minded

In the above described cases it is striking how broad Dutch judges see the responsibility of the Dutch state and the application of Dutch law. And how little they are concerned with the interest of average Dutch citizens. Dutch citizens will have to foot the housing, medical and educational bills for the Angolese asylum seekers children. For the inprisoning of the Somali pirates and for the bills of giving houses and benefits to the Somali pirates once they are released. And for the expenses of the wifes and children the pirates will bring into The Netherlands. Actually the "punishment" of the pirates is no punishment at all, but an incentive for Somalis to join pirates and make money by hyjacking ships and in bonus to all the loot perhaps receive the right to come and live in The Netherlands on the purse of the Dutch tax payer.

Smaller and bigger international pirates

The international treaties the judges base their rulings on have been promoted by transnational elites which is distant from the common people. The latter have had no voice in the matter. As the growing popularity of Geert Wilders' Freedom Party (PVV) shows the public is getting fed up with having to foot the bills of the rest of the globe. But the PVV is up against a powerful array of international treaties which overrule Dutch democracy and therefore the power of the PVV to influence the the course of the Dutch state. The state, originally a tool of the nation to protect and serve its interests has been hyjacked by these transnational pirates.

Internationalist Alliance for Freedom

Thus it makes sense for PVV leader Geert Wilders to launch an international effort. What he terms the Geert Wilders International Freedom Alliance in order to counter the power of the transnational pirates whether they are Dutch judges, transnational lawmakers and influence peddlers, African seekers of unearned economic benefits or Somali Pirates.