Netherlands: Moroccans want national curfew on children

Moroccan-Dutch want a national curfew for all children under 9, as well as a homework duty for young vandals and their parents, according to the SMN (the association of Moroccans in the Netherlands), the official representative of Moroccans to the government and part of the the National Ethnic Minorities Consultative Committee.

Parents who let their children roam about the streets unattended after 8pm should be fined, similarly to what is possible for those missing school, says SMN manager Farid Azarkan: "We must be creative and come with effective punishments.  The way it is now, it doesn't work.  Also these young children are drawn into street groups and so somewhat later in life get involved in crime."

SMN responded with this to the recently published report by Statistics Netherlands that says many Moroccan-Dutch youth start off on a criminal life at a young age.  They don't fear the punishments given by the bureaus set up to deal with youth crime or sentencing by judges.

The curfew would limit the risk that children would grow up from a young age in a criminal street culture.  Additionally, youth who within a period of half a year are caught twice by police for vandalism, theft or other delinquencies would have to show up at school with a parent every evening from 6pm to 7pm to do their homework.

"A too large group of parents isn't succeeding in raising [children].  They must get guidance and it must be clear that they should be involved in school," says Azarkan.

"We also hear of the kids themselves that got on the wrong path: if I only devoted more time in school, was treated more strictly by my father."
 
For the extra guidance needed in schools, the SMN calls to consider in particular the unemployed Moroccans.  SMN proposes to use some of the Moroccan men who get welfare while they could work as caretakers in schools.

Source: Telegraaf (Dutch)

1 comment:

FreeSpeech said...

I thought it to be a good idea until I read this:

"SMN proposes to use some of the Moroccan men who get welfare while they could work as caretakers in schools."

Sorry, I don't trust it.