News

The Public Entity of Saba signed a services agreement with the Benevolent Foundation Saba (BFS) for the setting-up and warranting of an extramural activity program for the seniors of Saba. Commissioner Bruce Zagers and the Board of Directors for BFS Dr. Joka Blaauboer signed the agreement today in front of …

It has been a year since Saba Healthcare Foundation (SHCF) and Benevolent Foundation Saba (BFS) initiated the Working Group Infection Prevention committee to further improve hygiene measures and infection prevention in the medical centre and the home, writes The Daily Herald. One of the first activities was a baseline assessment …

A quadrupling of the family allowance (“kinderbijslag”) to help combat poverty in Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba. That was the proposal of Members of the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament Roelof van Laar and Ronald van Raak of the Socialist Party (SP) during a debate on Monday. Many children …

Negotiations will start soon to discuss the transfer of tasks from the Dutch Government to the Public Entity Saba. Dutch Minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Ronald Plasterk made that pledge during a debate in the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament on Monday. The commitment came after Members …

The situation for children in Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba has improved in some areas in the past few years, but United Nations Children’s Fund in the Netherlands UNICEF Nederland and the Defence for Children organisation are still very much concerned about the conditions in which children on the islands …

The members of the Island Council of Saba left Friday, for their annual working visit to the Netherlands. During the weeklong trip the Island Council will visit both Amsterdam and The Hague. The Island Registrar has prepared a full agenda of meetings and appointments. One of the key meetings of …

The Representation of the Netherlands in St. Maarten bade farewell to Dutch Representative in Philipsburg Gert Versluis and policy advisor Bianca van der Lee during a reception Friday afternoon at Holland House Beach Hotel. Both have been working at the Dutch Representation for the past three years and six months. …

Saba student, Esther B. Henry, makes the Honor Roll (Dean’s List) of the Missouri Southern University in Joplin, Missouri. Esther  has made the Deans’ List at Missouri Southern State University for the spring 2016 semester.She is a junior Marketing (BSBA) major at MSSU. The list recognizes full-time students from Missouri Southern …

For the first time, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) has mapped out developments in purchasing power on the islands of the Caribbean Netherlands. The local spending power of the population on Bonaire, St Eustatius and Saba improved in 2012 as well as in 2013, although the latter increase was approximately half that …

The Dutch public entities in  the Caribbean have been trying hard to make their highly educated fellow islanders return, but so far, without much success. The RCN thinks that a new project could succeed. Every year ,dozens of youngsters leave the islands to study in the Netherlands, but they hardly have …

The Grade 6 class from Sacred Heart School recently returned from their class trip: a Carnival cruise out of Puerto Rico, with stops in St. Thomas, Barbados, St. Lucia and St. Kitts. Excursions during the trip included a visit to Harrison’s Cave in Barbados, where students went underground to gaze …

Charts of the Netherlands Antilles, Curaçao, Aruba, Bonaire, Saba, St. Eustatius and St. Maarten until 1900 may sound abstract, but there is a whole story, and a whole lot of work behind this hefty book which was officially presented in Amsterdam last Friday by the author, Wim Renkema. The author …

Rolando Wilson was inaugurated Friday morning as Commissioner in Saba’s Executive Council, replacing Chris Johnson, who is appointed as the new head of the Representation of the Netherlands in St. Maarten. Current communications advisor at Saba Government Information Service (SGIS) Vito Charles will be taking Wilson’s seat in the Island …

Popular comedian Jörgen Raymann is the new ambassador for the Save Our Sharks project in the Dutch Caribbean, it was announced on Friday. Raymann will visit all islands next month during Dutch Caribbean Shark Week. “I love the ocean and everything that lives in it. As Surinamese Dutch citizen and …

To increase public awareness, the Public Entity Saba is to place warning signs to warn residents and tourists alike about the various hazards that may occur on the island.The signs which indicate risks such as: falling rocks, slippery roads, and strong currents, will be placed in the appropriate areas on …

Coral nurseries will be set up in St. Maarten, St. Eustatius and Saba as part of a new project, announced the Institute for Marine Resources & Ecosystem Studies IMARES research institute of the Wageningen UR University in the Netherlands on Thursday, reports The Daily Herald. A new project has started …

The Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament is eager to get more information on how exactly the Dutch Government will raise the legal minimum wage and the social welfare, and how it intends to eradicate poverty in Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba. The Second Chamber’s Permanent Committee for Kingdom Relations …

May 16th, 2016 was the ultimate date on which inkomstenbelasting (IB ) (income tax) returns could be filed. 3829 taxpayers did this in time. The Belastingdienst CN would like to thank all these people for doing so. This year a total of 7435 IB tax-return forms were distributed. A large …

The Permanent Committee for Education, Culture and Science of the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament is keeping the pressure on Education Minister Jet Bussemaker and State Secretary Sander Dekker to move on with the process to improve the quality of education in Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba. Members of …

This week a sizable delegation from St. Eustatius and Saba will be travelling to Suriname to take part in the trade mission “Doing sustainable business between Suriname and the kingdom of The Netherlands, the Caribbean and Latin America.” The trade mission takes place at Royal Torarica hotel in Paramaribo on …

The response of the Dutch Government to the Caribbean Netherlands evaluation reports lacks reflection and concrete measures to address shortcomings, stated a disappointed Saba Government in a letter to the Dutch Parliament which also mentioned the positive aspects of the new constitutional relations, writes The Daily Herald. Saba’s Executive Council …

On Friday May 20th, 2016, in the Courtroom of the Government Administration Building in the Bottom of Saba, the closing took place with respect to a parcel of land in the district of Lower St. John’s. This parcel of land is situated nearby the Saba Comprehensive School and will be …

The English version of the official government response to the Spies reports is available below.

The Daily Herald reports that engineers from England and the Netherlands were on Saba last week to carry out repairs to the waste incinerator at the recycling facility, which has been out of operations since last year. The incinerator is used to burn non-recyclable waste. According to Saba Government Information …

As of May 1st, Employment Opportunity Saba (EOS) has been transferred from The Public Entity Saba to Saba Reach Foundation. EOS is a social assistance program that assists persons who have difficulties finding jobs in the regular labor market. As part of Saba Reach Foundation it will be another development …

Dutch News reports that the average price of a room in a student house in the Netherlands is now €323, the highest ever amount, according to new figures from national student union LSVB. Three-quarters of students now pay more than they should under the point system for agreeing rents, the …

The Executive Council has announced that positions are available within the government for students that are returning home for the summer. This program is the same program that has been in place for some years now where students are able to gain insight into how government functions while at the …

The formal response of the Dutch Government to the Caribbean Netherlands constitutional evaluation report was met with criticism by the St. Eustatius Democratic Party (DP). The DP described the Cabinet’s reaction as an “ad-hoc policy” and “without vision or well-defined goal.” “The reaction includes, similar to the Multi-Annual Programmes, few …

More than twenty participants representing Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, St. Eustatius, St. Maarten and Suriname will gather in Curaçao from Tuesday to Saturday for a workshop on developing plans to safeguard their intangible cultural heritage, writes The Daily Herald. Reflecting diverse communities and practitioners, as well as governmental and non-governmental …

Crown Weather Services from Florida predicts that, for the US, the 2016 Atlantic Hurricane Season is likely to be much more active than the 2015 hurricane season, . In fact, this season could be the most active hurricane season since 2012. In addition, it appears that we will see longer …

A social minimum tied to the legal minimum wage, potentially more exemptions from the general spending tax ABB, concrete incentives to stimulate investments and employment in Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba, and a more direct role of the National Government Representative. The Dutch Government came on Thursday with a formal …

Possibly the expectations were too high when Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba became part of the Netherlands in October 2010, but that is not the focus of Dutch Minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Ronald Plasterk. What count are the things that already have been done to improve things …

A social minimum will be introduced, derived from the statutory minimum wage on Bonaire, Saba and St. Eustatius. The social relief (in Dutch “onderstand”) can increase to that in steps. Measures will also be taken in order to stimulate investments and employment. With this the cabinet responds to the Spies …

Dear all, Please see the attached invitation to a CCM on Thursday May, 29th, 2016. All are welcome to attend or listen on www.q93.9fm.com The Central Committee of the Public Entity Saba will meet on Thursday May 19th, 2016 at 2:00 pm at the Government Administration Building. The agenda for …

The unions have reached an agreement with the Director of RCN, Jan Helmond, regarding the labour conditions 2016 -2017. This result follows intensive negotiations and its duration is from January 1st, 2016 until December 31st, 2017. The Collective Labour Agreement (CLA) is applicable to all workers employed by the RCN …

The Police Substation in Windwardside was officially inaugurated Monday following the opening act by Island Governor Jonathan Johnson and the blessing by Father Ranolfo. Also present at the official opening were Chief of Basic Police Care Saba Ibrahim Ekiz and Deputy Chief of Police of the Caribbean Netherlands Police Force …

Police officers from St. Maarten, Saba and St. Eustatius will be better equipped to carry out their duties, thanks to “rigorous” three-day training on Situational Oriented Policing that they are currently undergoing, reports The Daily Herald. The classes began on May 9 and will continue until May 14. Officers from …

Saba Roads and Construction B.V. (SRC) will commence with resurfacing of the Fort Bay Road on Monday, May 16, 2016. This project consists of the full resurfacing of the road approximately 1250 meters uphill. The scope of this project also includes the construction of 2 cisterns and installation of 3 …

On Monday morning around 8.00 AM the Dutch Caribbean Police Force (KPCN) on Saba was notified that 4 persons (one female and three males) were feared missing. A preliminary investigation showed that the four hikers of American and Canadian origin were missing since Sunday. The Dutch Caribbean Police Force in …

On Monday, May 9th a call was received that four persons (one female and three males) hadn’t returned from a hike on the North Coast Trail. The hikers had left on Sunday afternoon and up to Monday morning their families hadn’t heard from them and contacted the relevant authorities. Immediately …