NETHERLANDS/UIGHURS: DUTCH WANT UNHCR INVOLVEMENT

C O N F I D E N T I A L THE HAGUE 002444

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/08/2015
TAGS: PREL PTER PHUM PREF PINR MOPS KAWC NL
SUBJECT: NETHERLANDS/UIGHURS: DUTCH WANT UNHCR INVOLVEMENT
BEFORE CONSIDERING REQUEST

REF: STATE 158272

Classified By: CDA CHAT BLAKEMAN FOR REASONS 1.4(B) AND (D).


1. (C) On September 2, POLCOUNS delivered reftel demarche
regarding the possible resettlement of 15 Uighur detainees
from Guantanamo to Anneke Adema, Head of the Dutch MFA's
Office of Human Rights Affairs. Adema said that she would
circulate the request to the relevant Dutch ministries and
provide a preliminary response. Without commenting on the
specifics of the case, Adema noted that the Dutch generally
coordinate resettlement requests with UNHCR. Per reftel,
POLCOUNS noted that the USG had been in discussion with ICRC
and UNHCR.


2. (C) POLCOUNS received the Dutch preliminary response on
September 7 from Guillaume Teerling in Anneke Adema's Office.
Teerling stressed that the request had been studied
carefully by the Dutch side. Recalling the earlier
discussion of the issue, Teerling said the Dutch agreed that
the persons in question should be released and cannot return
to China in light of the strong possibility of persecution.
As a matter of policy, however, the Dutch Immigration and
Naturalization service will only consider resettlement
requests from UNHCR. For that reason, the Dutch are not at
this time in a position to consider the specific U.S.
request, or any other bilateral request of this nature.


3. (C) On September 8, POLCOUNS raised the issue again with
Deputy Political Director Pieter de Gooijer, stressing that
this was a high priority for the USG. De Gooijer
acknowledged that the issue had political implications, but
reiterated the standing Dutch policy. Neither he nor other
Dutch interlocutors would speculate as to how the Dutch would
respond to a similar request coming from UNHCR.


4. (C) COMMENT: While sympathetic to the Uighurs' situation,
the Dutch government clearly is not prepared to change its
long-standing policy on bilateral resettlement requests in
this case. Not only would changing the policy be politically
and bureaucratically difficult, but could open the government
up to charges of favoritism and/or set a precedent for future
bilateral requests. Absent UNHCR involvement, we doubt that
higher-level approaches to the Dutch would produce a
different response. END COMMENT.
BLAKEMAN