THE HAGUE – Dutch State Secretary for Kingdom Relations, Eddie van Marum, has strongly denied that the Netherlands played any role in violating the rights of Venezuelan migrants and refugees in Aruba. His response comes after the release of an Amnesty International report titled “Unprotected: Failures in the Protection of Venezuelan Refugees in Aruba”, published on October 1, 2024. 

“I do not agree with the claim that Dutch support was aimed at tracing Venezuelans, detaining them, or deporting them, nor that the Netherlands contributed to violations of the principle of non-refoulement in Aruba,” Van Marum wrote in a letter to the Dutch House of Representatives. 

The principle of non-refoulement prohibits returning individuals to a country where they risk persecution. Amnesty’s report had criticized the Dutch government for allegedly contributing, indirectly, to such practices in Aruba. 

Van Marum clarified that tracing, detaining, or deporting Venezuelans has never been part of the support provided by the Netherlands to Aruba. However, he acknowledged that the Netherlands did contribute financially, at Aruba’s request, to a repatriation fund intended for individuals who no longer have legal residency rights. 

In what observers see as a familiar approach in sensitive Kingdom affairs, Van Marum repeatedly emphasized that migration is a domestic matter, and that Aruba bears the sole responsibility for adhering to human rights obligations and international refugee conventions. 

This position has drawn criticism from human rights organizations, which argue that the Kingdom of the Netherlands cannot fully detach itself from the human rights practices in its constituent countries. 

The debate underscores the complexities of governance within the Kingdom, particularly when it comes to shared responsibilities and the protection of vulnerable populations such as Venezuelan migrants fleeing political and economic crisis.