WILLEMSTAD - Dagmar Oudshoorn, director of Amnesty International Netherlands, wrote in January of this year that she agrees with the Netherlands freezing financial support to Curaçao for improving immigration detention, now the tone is a bit milder after her last visit in March.
In January, Amnesty's website stated in response to the termination of funding: “The Curaçao government does not sufficiently respect human rights. The Netherlands is finally recognizing the inhumane detention conditions and for the first time is attaching harsh consequences to this. For years we have been drawing attention to the dire situation in which Venezuelans find themselves in Curaçao. In recent years, the Netherlands continued to give money to improve immigration detention, while human rights were still being violated without attaching any consequences. The fact that the State Secretary is now doing so for the first time is a step in the right direction.”
In the latest blog of April 7, 2022, written by Oudshoorn and Yara Boff Tonella, project leader migrant and refugee rights Curaçao, they write after their visit in March of this year:
“Although the conditions in the current barracks for foreigners are still inhumane, we saw cautious improvements in the barracks that are now under construction: they are built on the wind for cooling, there is more space for recreation and there are spaces for medical and legal staff. However, practice will have to show whether foreign nationals will really be treated better and have better access to medical care and legal aid. Even more essential is that people are no longer imprisoned as criminals, but that the courts look at alternatives to imprisonment. And that they get a fair chance of protection and that temporary humanitarian residence permits are issued. The Netherlands should offer Curaçao support in this regard. Curaçao should not stand alone in this.”
‘Detention and dilemmas’
In the following, the full text has been taken from the blog entitled Detention and dilemmas:
This is the blog that Dagmar Oudshoorn and Yara Boff Tonella wrote about their working visit to Curaçao and Aruba from March 13-19, 2022, following the report 'Still not safe; Venezuelans do not receive protection in Curaçao."
“If you are sent back to Venezuela, they will catch you. Then they extort you. And if they can't find you, they'll take your partner, your father, your mother. Like a kind of chain,” a young Venezuelan told us in the immigration detention center.
During our working visit to Curaçao, we spoke with Venezuelans who live in Curaçao without residence papers, or who were detained in the immigration detention center at the time. Many feared Venezuelan gangs linked to the government would extort them if they were returned to Venezuela. Parents said they had abandoned their children, sometimes even a few months old baby. And the diabolical dilemma kept coming back: Do you remain in a situation where your children, nieces or grandparents are starving, the most simple medicines are not available and there is a constant threat of (state) violence; or are you looking for safety in Curaçao to support your family from there?
Venezuelans on the run
More than six million Venezuelans chose the latter and have fled their country. That makes this one of the biggest refugee crises in the world. Due to the excessive crisis in Venezuela, the United Nations refugee agency, the UNHCR, is calling on countries not to return Venezuelans and offer them protection.
From our report
'Still not safe' from last October turned out to be lacking in Curaçao. Venezuelans, including children, are normally detained in inhumane conditions and the procedure for obtaining international protection is difficult to access, leading only to insecurity and rejection. To date, no one has received protection.
Discussion with the government of Curaçao
We spoke to Prime Minister Pisas and his officials about this, and the dilemmas they face. Dealing with the relatively high number of undocumented Venezuelans (estimated to be about 17,000 out of a population of 150,000) is a huge task for Curaçao, which itself is already in a deep economic crisis. We are not blind to that, but it also does not justify that Curaçao violates human rights. For example, by locking up children and humiliating people in immigration detention. Standing up for the human rights of its own people does not have to preclude Venezuelans from being treated with dignity. Moreover, Curaçao itself also benefits from fair, careful procedures: they ensure that you have a better view of who is in your country.
High walls and barbed wire
We visited the women's and men's section of the foreigners' barracks of the Sentro di Detenshon i Korekshon Kòrsou (SDKK). Behind high walls and barbed wire, in tropically warm temperatures, the men were in their cells almost 24 hours a day. They complained about poor food and a lack of clean clothes, sanitary products and daytime activities. Some had been detained there for four months. The women were locked up with female criminals. They have poor access to legal aid and psychological help. We saw the tense looks and heard the whispers and shouts: No one wanted to be locked up like criminals.
And so the writing ends:
“We are pleased that the Curaçao authorities promised to keep us informed of developments in the coming period. We will continue to monitor them critically.”