Refugees in asylum centres are to be given lessons in gay rights, education minister Jet Bussemaker said in an interview in Monday’s Trouw.

The lessons will be based on the materials used in Dutch secondary schools, the minister said. The aim is to boost safety and to make clear that anti-gay discrimination will not be tolerated in the Netherlands, the minister said.

‘We should not be naive,’ she said. ‘Refugees come from countries where gay rights are not a matter of course and where women’s rights are not always accepted.’ The education ministry will supply the teaching material and it will be up to individual refugee centres to decide how to to use it.

Separate housing

Bussemaker also wants to involve the gay rights lobby group Coc and the gay police organisation Roze in Blauw in the initiative.

In December, five gay asylum seekers in Amsterdam were moved to a new location after they were spat on and attacked by other people in their refugee centre.

However, junior justice minister Klaas Dijkhoff said earlier he did not support separate accommodation for gay refugees because it was ‘stigmatising’ and the refugee settlement agency COA also opposes the measure.