THE HAGUE--The Dutch Council of Ministers on Friday approved a proposal to establish a transitional arrangement that regulates the admission of Dutch citizens on the BES islands of Bonaire, St. Eustatius, and Saba. The arrangement protects the islands from an influx of Dutch citizens.

The proposal, presented by caretaker Minister of Justice Ernst Hirsch Ballin and caretaker State Secretary of Kingdom Relations Ank Bijleveld-Schouten, arranged for the existing rules for the admission of Dutch citizens to remain in effect until the Kingdom Law that regulates the movement of persons is implemented on the BES islands.

The transitional arrangement was needed to prevent that a gap between the moment that the three islands become part of the Netherlands as "public entities" and the implementation of the Movement of Persons Kingdom Law.

The Dutch Government considered it "undesirable" in this transitional arrangement, to implement unilaterally the Movement of Persons Kingdom Law for all Dutch citizens in the Kingdom in a limited part of the Kingdom, the BES islands.

In the absence of a transitional arrangement, in principle, all Dutch citizens would have had free admission to the BES islands, whereas the other countries, including the future countries Curaçao and St. Maarten, would not have that free access.

This, argued the Dutch Kingdom Council of Ministers, would not be in agreement with the intended reciprocity in a Movement of Person Kingdom Law. It was for this reason that The Hague opted to maintain the existing rules for the time being.

The point of departure of the Persons Movement Kingdom Law is to create a uniform regime that regulates free access of all Dutch citizens with as few restrictive conditions as possible. The law would be applicable to all countries in the Kingdom.

The transitional arrangement will be sent to the Second Chamber in the form of an amendment to the Admittance and Expulsion Law BES, the LTU BES. This law proposal has already been sent to the Second Chamber where the initial handling will take place on April 15.

LTU BES regulates the admission of foreigners to the BES islands, and after the addition of the transitional arrangement, the access of Dutch citizens to these islands.