THE HAGUE - Papiamento should be promoted and protected as a full language in Bonaire. The Dutch cabinet wants to commission a study to see how this can best be done.

Minister Kajsa Ollongren of the Interior announced this in the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament after a request from the factions GroenLinks and PvdA. Papiamento is an official language in Aruba and Curaçao, but not in Bonaire.

According to the minister, language is linked to the experience and propagation of one's own identity. That is why she finds it important to protect Papiamentu for generations now and in the future. The process concerns the protection of Papiamento on Bonaire, but also of this language in the Netherlands.