Many Curaçao victims of the benefits affair do not report, 'out of shame'
NOS News•Friday, June 9, 2023, 8:00 PM
Many Curaçao victims of the benefits affair do not report, 'out of shame'
Dick Drayer Correspondent Curaçao
Time is slowly running out for those affected by the benefits affair: December 31 is the last day where they can still report at the Ministry of Finance for the compensation scheme. The main question is whether Dutch people with a Curaçao background will meet the deadline. They have often fled to the island from the tax authorities and do not report, out of shame or because of cultural differences.
“Claiming your right is something typically Dutch; as a Curaçaoan, you don't do that so quickly,” says Curaçao native Erica Wever. She herself was the victim of the benefits affair and is actively looking for peers to help them.
Through her agency Minority's KOT/CAS (Childcare Allowance Curaçao, Aruba and Sint Maarten), she tries to persuade parents to report to the Dutch Ministry of Finance. Those parents are mostly single mothers with sky-high debts.
Sky-high debt
Wever: “People are hard to find and are afraid to fight with the Dutch government. Distrust, shame and a sense that fighting with the government is not only pointless but also rude. It is a typical Curaçaos' fight. People often think: I can't change anything, things are the way they are.”
50-year-old Monique Molina did compete, as the mother of two adult children. After studying in the Netherlands, like many students from the Caribbean islands, she decided to stay there. “In 2012, I fled to Curaçao overnight. The situation with the tax authorities was unsustainable. I owed 50,000 euros, and a solution was unnegotiable. I was labeled a fraud.” She does not know exactly how much her debt is.
Until two years ago, Molina remained invisible. She hasn't opened letters for years, she knew nothing about the compensation scheme. Until Wever tracked her down and included her in the peer group. Now she has been registered and recognized as a victim. When help will arrive and what it will look like for her, Molina does not know.
De Vries: we want to help
Secretary of State Aukje de Vries, who has the benefits affair in her portfolio, is currently touring the islands. In doing so, she speaks to affected parents.
“I think that here on the islands, the question is very specific whether you want to return to the Netherlands,” says De Vries. “People have fled and we can help with that. We are trying to arrange similar support for parents, as is the case in the Netherlands. Not through the municipality, but through a support team for parents abroad.”
The starting point for the Netherlands is that parents work on the compensation themselves and report to the ministry in the Netherlands. That is precisely the weak point in the Curaçao cultural context, say stakeholders on the islands. According to them, the specific situation for refugee parents, 9000 kilometers away from the Netherlands, calls for a less rigid deadline of 31 December.
But Secretary of State De Vries is firm about this: “It's a deadline that's in the law, so it's tough. But I think that because of the attention that is now being paid, parents are being made aware of it again. And then, in the end, it's up to them to take action and possibly sign up.”
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