Publicly Funded Dutch NGOs Put “Our Own Country Last”

"Lobbyists and pressure groups masquerading as civil society organisations, in the service of a progressive agenda, putting the citizens of European nations last."

From The European Conservative

By Ildikó Bíró, PhD

Hundreds of millions of public funds have been earmarked for “the asylum industry.”

In a recent damning analysis, Dutch journalist Eric Ypma of the right-wing publication NieuwRechts dissects the workings of powerful NGOs in the Netherlands that operate with exorbitant budgets, posing as charities, but which in reality function as pressure groups promoting progressive migration policies.

Ypma highlights that ever since the 1970s, hundreds of millions of public funds have been earmarked in the Netherlands as development aid, a large part of which continues to end up with these groups that then use the money to “bombard both government and society with actions, lobbies and lawsuits” as part of what Ypma calls “the asylum industry.”

While the groups pose as representatives of some public sentiment on migration, their membership is negligible, Ypma found. Despite calling themselves ‘non-governmental,’ only 26% of their total income is derived directly from citizens and companies, the rest is channelled to them by the Dutch government and the largest charity lottery in the country, the Nationale Postcode Loterij. 

Looking closely at the annual financial reports of these NGOs, Ypma also realised that a lot of money is shifted back and forth between them. While acknowledging that this may happen for “practical” reasons,  he suggests that transferring the money from one group to another can also have to do “with the financial support of radical organisations that cannot or do not want to meet the subsidy requirements of governments.” 

What sets these groups apart from genuine civil society organisations is that they have big and beautiful offices in the posh districts of the most important and most affluent Dutch cities, known as Randstad. Also, they normally have politicians sitting on their boards. 

But the peculiarities don’t end there. Ypma found that according to their 2023 financial report, Doctors Without Borders (Netherlands) for instance had a staff of 433 at its headquarters in Amsterdam, 816 international employees, and 11,367 (!) national employees. Meanwhile, as Ypma points out, there is a dire shortage of healthcare workers in Holland, which makes him ask the rhetorical question whether the motto of the group is “our own country last.”

Another example the reporter cites is PAX, the originally Christian organisation. Ypma notes that the group has long renounced its Christian inspiration and replaced it with progressive ideology. He recalls that the group campaigned against the (now fallen) Dutch (centre)-right government, describing its migration policy as a “threat to peace” and being at odds with “values-driven organizations like PAX.” The groups has also devoted itself to spreading subsidized anti-Israel propaganda, and, on behalf of the Dutch population (?), launched a lawsuit about arms deliveries to Israel.

One wonders: why does all this sound so familiar to someone who is not Dutch? Might it be that it is because there is a well-functioning pattern here? Lobbyists and pressure groups masquerading as civil society organisations, in the service of a progressive agenda, putting the citizens of European nations last.