More than 1,000 new citizenship applications have been lodged at the Dutch embassy in South Africa thus far this year; double from last year.
Voorburg, The Hague. - Afrikaners with Dutch forebears are rushing to apply for Dutch passports, reports the daily Algemeen Dagblad. More than a thousand applications for Dutch citizenship are waiting for approval at the Dutch embassy in South Africa – and last year they had granted some 500 work-permits for Afrikaners with Dutch roots.
Journalist Caspar Nabel interviewed one couple, Hendrik and Lynette de Vries, who now live with their little baby in the The Hague suburb of Voorburg.
The De Vries couple said they were mainly driven from South Africa because of the crime: “Hendrik’s dad was murdered, and I feared for my life,’ she said.
Thanks to Hendrik’s forefather, who left for South Africa from The Hague during the 18th century, the couple have been granted a Dutch passport. They don’t have to choose which nationality they prefer as yet: “We have permission to keep our South African nationality and to adopt the Dutch nationality,’ said Lynette.
She was in The Netherlands before – as an au pair fifteen years ago. She has a job now as a design manager and her husband is a systems manager. They both don’t ever want to go back to South Africa, they said.
“We went through a lot of trouble to get used to the weather and the cultural differences, but we live ‘baie lekker in Holland,’ both said.
An embassy spokesman in Pretoria said that while the economic crisis in South Africa ‘is playing an important role,’ the flood of citizenship-applications from Afrikaners is mainly due to recent changes in the Dutch laws, which makes emigration for people for Dutch forebears – which applies to the majority of Afrikaners – much more attractive.
Visum applications, Pretoria Embassy.
Voorburg, The Hague. - Afrikaners with Dutch forebears are rushing to apply for Dutch passports, reports the daily Algemeen Dagblad. More than a thousand applications for Dutch citizenship are waiting for approval at the Dutch embassy in South Africa – and last year they had granted some 500 work-permits for Afrikaners with Dutch roots.
Journalist Caspar Nabel interviewed one couple, Hendrik and Lynette de Vries, who now live with their little baby in the The Hague suburb of Voorburg.The De Vries couple said they were mainly driven from South Africa because of the crime: “Hendrik’s dad was murdered, and I feared for my life,’ she said.
Thanks to Hendrik’s forefather, who left for South Africa from The Hague during the 18th century, the couple have been granted a Dutch passport. They don’t have to choose which nationality they prefer as yet: “We have permission to keep our South African nationality and to adopt the Dutch nationality,’ said Lynette.
She was in The Netherlands before – as an au pair fifteen years ago. She has a job now as a design manager and her husband is a systems manager. They both don’t ever want to go back to South Africa, they said.
“We went through a lot of trouble to get used to the weather and the cultural differences, but we live ‘baie lekker in Holland,’ both said.
An embassy spokesman in Pretoria said that while the economic crisis in South Africa ‘is playing an important role,’ the flood of citizenship-applications from Afrikaners is mainly due to recent changes in the Dutch laws, which makes emigration for people for Dutch forebears – which applies to the majority of Afrikaners – much more attractive.
Visum applications, Pretoria Embassy.
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