Holland: Police academy accused of racism
01 January 1994
A group of 21 students from a migrant background at the Dutch national police academy in Apeldoorn have issued a 20-page report detailing serious complaints of racist behaviour by the academy's staff and students. Under the governments' ethnic minorities encouragement programme, currently over 25% of the students at the academy come from ethnic minorities. The report says the academy's archetypal image is of the criminal "enemy" as Turkish. Teachers depict all Turks as criminals, and Turkish visitors at a school party were singled out and checked for a criminal record. During sporting lessons ethnic minorities are constantly tainted as being unable to perform certain exercises and having a natural fear for water. The academy's director Mr F van der Gun has claimed that the report does not give a fair presentation of the situation.