Evaluation documents will be translated

Documents relating to the overall evaluation of the constitutional status of Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba as public entity will be translated into the local languages Papiamentu and English. Dutch Minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Ronald Plasterk made this commitment in a letter that he sent to the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament last Friday. Member of the Second Chamber Wassila Hachchi of the Democratic Party D66 had asked the minister during the budget debate on November 28 last year about the possibility to translate documents of the Dutch Government relating to the Caribbean Netherlands in the local languages so people on the islands could better understand them. Plasterk replied that the Dutch Government and its individual ministries are not obliged to translate all official documents for that would be too costly and burdensome. The ministries decide which documents are translated, based on the advice of the National Government Service Caribbean Netherlands RCN.

Press releases and documents that serve to inform the residents are always translated, also from the Ministry of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations BZK. Plasterk said that this will also apply to the documents that have to do with the 2015 constitutional evaluation. “I acknowledge the usefulness and necessity of informing residents of the Caribbean Netherlands even though the Dutch Government isn’t obliged to translate official documents. Therefore, I am willing to point out to my colleagues to always consider whether there is a need or desire to translate certain documents to English and Papiamentu,” stated Plasterk.
All this was reported by The Dayly Herald.