Delegates of the SER’s of the Caribbean part of the Kingdom visit the advisory committee for migration affairs

The Hague, 15 October 2019 – On Monday 14 October a delegation of the Social-Economic Councils (SER’s) of Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten paid a working visit to the Advisory committee for Migration affairs (ACVZ) in The Hague. The delegation consisted of the chairman of the SER of Sint Maarten Damien Richardson and the Secretary General Felix Bijlhout from SER Aruba, Raul Henriquez from SER Curaçao and Gerard Richardson from SER Sint Maarten. The purpose of the working visit was to know more about the committee’s advisory tasks in response to the results of the joint symposium on (labor) migration which is related to the social-economic development that the SER from the three countries organized in Curaçao at the beginning of May this year.

The Advisory committee for Migration affairs is an independent advisory board that gives solicited and unsolicited advice to the Dutch government and the parliament about the rights of migrants and migration policy. The advice policies are focused on the main outlines of the migration policy. The committee examines if the policy has been efficient and effective and thus if needed, gives recommendations for improvement.

During the conversation with the chairman Koos Richelle from the ACVZ, Secretary/Director Wolf Mannens and advisor Sonja Avontuur, the SER’s of the Caribbean region reflected thoroughly about the observation, which also emerged during the joint organized migration symposium, that the migration law and migration issue is important for the sustainability of the social security system of Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten in view of the increasing ageing, new comers and emigration.

Since the ACVZ provides advice on topics such as labor/highly skilled migration, family migration, return policy and integration, the SER’s of the three Caribbean countries considered it to be relevant to further exchange views about these and other issues with the advisory committee.

The conversation was concluded with the agreement that cooperation between the advisory institutions in the form of exchanging experience, knowledge and expertise offers mutual benefits and it will be further elaborated.