WILLEMSTAD - Undersecretary Raymond Knops has pledged 16.5 million euros in humanitarian aid to the three islands of Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten and the three Bes islands for the next three months.
With that money, food packages and hygiene products can be bought and distributed for those in need. In Curaçao alone, an estimated 50,000 people depend on food aid because of the corona crisis.
Aid will be channeled through existing channels of local organizations that are already operational and not through island governments.
Knops is willing to expand the aid to the islands considerably, generously even, but does impose conditions on it. He believes, for example, that government officials and politicians should give a signal by doing something about, for example, their own salaries.
The Netherlands is not prepared to continue to provide aid if countries do not solve their problems with tax collection and public finances. Countries have to pay for it, Knops said.