Thursday night’s parliamentary debate on the ‘Moroccan problem’ called by the anti-immigration PVV turned into a repetition of known standpoints, Nos television reported.

The PVV gathered enough support for the debate in the wake of the death of football linesman Richard Nieuwenhuizen last year. He was attacked by youth players from a team of largely immigrant youngsters from Amsterdam and died in hospital a day later.

MPs from across the political spectrum criticised the name given to the debate by the PVV, which they said was insulting and discriminatory. It is also wrong to define an entire group by the actions of a few, MPs said.

Figures from the government’s socio-cultural think tank SCP last year said 65% of Dutch-Moroccan youths under the age of 23 have been questioned by police. However, it is unknown how many of them were actually convicted of a crime.

Immigration

The reason is ‘unhindered mass immigration and failed integration’, PVV parliamentarian Joram van Klaveren is quoted as saying by news agency ANP. It is time for ‘hard-as-steel repression, minimum sentences, curfews, collective responsibility, mobile police units and loss of nationality’, Van Klaveren said.

Social affairs minister Lodewijk Asscher said the government was not walking away from the problem, but that it concerned individuals, rather than an entire population group. What is needed is tackling crime, support for parents in raising their children and ensuring problem youth get good education and a job, he said.

The PVV tried to have the debate delayed because it was scheduled for after 9pm but did not win enough support for the move. Nor was there support for a motion to ‘come down hard on the Moroccan problem’ at the end of the debate.