Anti-Iranian Sentiments - The Netherlands

The Netherlands

The requests of the Ministry of Education and Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands to monitor Iranian students has led to a situation that Iranian students cannot study at the University of Twente in the city of Enschede and Eindhoven University of Technology in the city of Eindhoven. The latter university had even asked the AIVD (the Dutch intelligence service) to monitor the Iranian students. AIVD stated that it was not their duty to do this and the University has decided to stop admitting any applicants from Iran no matter what degree they are seeking. The reason provided by the Dutch government is that it fears the theft of sensitive nuclear technology that could assist the Iranian government in constructing nuclear weapons. After protests were lodged, the Dutch government announced again that the Iranian students and the Dutch citizens of Iranian extraction, are not allowed to study at many Dutch universities and some areas in the Netherlands are off-limits to them.

Additionally, several other universities stated that the government had prohibited them from admitting students from Iran, and technical colleges weren't to allow Iranian students access to knowledge of nuclear technology. It was noted that this was the first time after the German occupation during the Second World War that ethnic-, religion- or racial-based restrictions were imposed in this part of Europe. Harry van Bommel, a parliamentarian of the Dutch Socialist Party (SP), condemned this berufsverbot, deliberately using a German word which is associated with the Second World War. Although the Dutch authorities state that the UN security council's resolution 1737 (2006) authorizes them and obliges all member states of the UN to take such a measure, the Netherlands remains the only country to have done so.