Caravan dwellers in Breda have filed a complaint against the board of their city to the Human Rights. They blame mayor and aldermen discrimination and want an investigation. “It is time for them to be tapped,” says the person submitting the complaint Bart Hülters from the Foundation Beda Foundation Breda. It is a supplement to a complaint that was already made last year against an official of the municipality. The Commission for Human Rights already investigates that matter.
“I once requested my personal file from the municipality of Breda,” says Bart Hülters (45). “With my details I see the addition ‘houseboat/caravan’. The municipality has so mystery branded me. That is and is not allowed at all? That seems to me to be discrimination!”
The well -known lawyer Peter Schouten, who helps the Breda caravan dwellers, also questions this. “This is just like with the allowance affair,” he says. “Special personal data is mentioned here in a citizen file. That is not possible at all and the case goes much further. Whether it is punishable, I cannot say yet, but I will find all out. The municipality should answer what happened.”
It has been rumbling between the caravan dwellers and the municipality of Breda for a while. An argument that is now receiving a new chapter due to the submitted complaint about discrimination against the municipal administration. An allegation in response to a long and now dragging conflict.
“They have opposed us for years because we are caravan dwellers.”
That conflict revolves around a piece of wasteland right next to the caravan camp in the Breda district of The Hague Beemden. The travelers Wanting extra locations there for years, but the municipality is now leaving housing corporation now building 24 apartments for seniors. Thursday the city council votes on the necessary change in the zoning plan.
The caravan dwellers want that entire plan to get off the table. They believe that they were treated and discriminated against during the entire process. “They have knowingly opposed us for years,” says Hülters. “Breda just sewn us because we are caravan dwellers and we have evidence for that. This is evident from internal documents that we have in our hands by a WOO request (Open Government Act).”
“Between 2018 and now we are structurally disadvantaged in Breda by municipal policy,” he continues. “They have acted in violation of the principles of equal treatment, respect for cultural identity and the right to decent housing. Hence the complaint at the College for Human Rights. And especially against the drivers who were there earlier. It is time for them to be tapped.”
“It is forbidden, but in Breda they will continue with the extinction policy.”
Alderman Eddie Förster van Breda recently admitted in the city council that mistakes were made in the past and that the caravan dwellers have been disadvantaged. But now, according to him, the current college is working more energetically and wants to allocate extra locations in the city before the end of the year.
“After the abolition of the extinction policy in 2018, zero pitches were added in Breda,” says Leonie Hülters, Bart’s wife. “They now say everything because they are afraid, but nothing happens. It is forbidden, but in Breda they will continue with the extinction policy (see box).”
Extension policy until 2018
In 1999 the caravan law was abolished in the Netherlands and a extinction policy applied to caravan centers. There were no new pitches for caravans and caravan dwellers had to move to normal houses. But after a legal tug of war this is no longer allowed since 2018 and municipalities have to offer locations again.
Bart and Leonie Hülters are forced to live in a house with their families. They have been waiting for a location for decades, but it is not there. “Life in a caravan, that’s in your blood! We have no choice now. It is now also official cultural heritage.”
The opposition in the Breda city council also speaks harsh words. “This plan is dirty,” Iwan Dienjes of the LPF recently said during a meeting. “Sprained with discrimination, smeared with mismanagement, smeared with abuses.” In any case, Breda sees no reason to change the plans next to the camp in the Beemden in The Hague and to stop the building plans of Alwel.
“It is a long fight against discrimination for us,” says Bart Hülters. “They more or less admit that, but they do not turn anything back. I think they should withdraw the building plan from Alwel, because otherwise they will just stick to the old (extinction) policy. That is discriminatory and has to stop.”
The question is what the municipality of Breda is doing with the complaint. Earlier she received a registered letter – which Omroep Brabant has seen – from the College of Human Rights. Because the complaint is a supplement to an earlier report of discrimination against Hülters on 25 February last year. “I asked an official why we are not allowed to live on that piece of land next to the camp. The answer was:” Because you are a caravan dweller. “I have not officially heard from the municipality about the complaint.”
