Dutch news in brief – 28 January

Pupils expelled for sending ‘bullet-letter’

AMSTERDAM — Four students of the Marcanti College in Amsterdam have been expelled for leaving a letter in the school threatening the lives of teachers. The letter contained a bullet. The four were arrested on 16 January this year, just three days after a deputy headmaster Hans van Wieren was shot and killed by a pupil, 17, at a school in The Hague.

Health and Justice top media-leak list

Tired of confidential government information finding its way to the media, Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende has had a list drawn up that reportedly indicates that the most leaks originate from the Health and Justice ministries. Newspaper De Volkskrant said on Wednesday that Balkenende has warned his Cabinet colleagues that he may resort to calling in the police to track down the guilty parties.

25pc looking for better job

One in every four employees in the Netherlands was so unhappy with his or her job that they sought another position in the last month, according to the findings of Loonwijzer, or wage indicator, survey carried out jointly by the University of Amsterdam, the FNV trade union federation and the job seekers website Monsterboard.nl. Just over 11,500 people took part in the survey.

Schiphol gears up for bird flu threat

Officials of Ministry of Agriculture have held talks with the authorities at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport on Wednesday to put precautionary measures in place to combat the threat of the bird flu infection which has broken out in several Asian countries. Agriculture Minister Cees Veerman has ordered that disinfectant mats be placed in arrival halls at the airport and that the customs service step up checks on baggage for poultry products.

Expelled asylum seekers to be tracked

Dutch refugee organisation VON has announced it is to monitor the progress of asylum seekers deported from the Netherlands after being refused a parson by Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk. The minister granted residence permits to over 2,000 long-term asylum applicants earlier this month, but announced a further 26,000 people will returned to their home countries. VON says it is not safe to return many of these people to places where they could face persecution. It hopes to be able to prove this by monitoring refuges deported from the Netherlands.

[Copyright Expatica News 2004]

Subject: Dutch news