Debt Briefing: Bonaire

Explanation of terms used: 

Term	Meaning
Sovereign debt(also called government debt, national debt, or public debt)	The amount of money a nation's government has borrowed from creditors which can be domestic or external
Domestic debt	All debt owed to domestic creditors, often issued in local currency or under local law
External debt	All debt owed to foreign creditors (= non-resident, both public and private, including commercial banks, governments, or international financial institutions), often issued in foreign currency or under foreign law
Debt-to-GDP ratio	Showing how much a country owes compared to the financial value of everything that is produced and sold in that country in a year (GDP)
Debt swaps	An agreement where a country restructures its debt by exchanging it for something else in order to reduce its debt burden or improve repayment terms
Public debt audits	A detailed review of how much a government has borrowed, owes, to whom, for what purpose, and whether the debt was acquired legally, transparently, and in the public interest.
Refinancing a loan	Replacing an existing loan with a new loan

Colonialism:

Dutch colonialism never ended. The people from Bonaire are still struggling for their self-determination and the decolonisation of their territory. The first inhabitants of the island were the Caiquetios (a branch of the Arawak Indians).[1] When Spain colonised the territory in 1499, they enslaved or murdered all of the native peoples of the island. From 1633, the Dutch took over the colonisation. The Dutch exploited the land to export salt through slave-labour until the abolition of slavery in 1863. [2]

Continued Colonial Rule

After the dissolution of the Dutch Antilles (on 10-10-2010), Bonaire became a ‘public body’ of the Netherlands. The legitimisation for this was that Bonaireans had been made to believe that the Dutch state would improve their economic situation, which did not happen. [3] However, most Bonaireans do not want to be governed by the Dutch state, as is apparent from the referendum that was held in 2015 (65% voted against the current ties to the Dutch state)[4]. The Bonaire Human Rights Organisation (BHRO) has been advocating for the inclusion of Bonaire on the list of non-self-governing territories of the UN, to enforce its decolonisation. This demand is supported unanimously by the Mercosur parliament (economic bloc based in Southern Abya Yala).[5] In the previous decade, open borders for European Dutch doubled that part of the population. Thereby, making the native population a minority.  The political and economic conditions imposed (open markets, increased land taxation), make life more and more difficult for Bonaireans, whilst the political power is transferred even more to the European Dutch immigrant class. [4]

Bonaire’s Economy: Tourism and Apartheid:

Currently, most of the Bonairean economy is dependent on tourism (58% of GDP in 2024).[6] However, this economic model drives up the costs of living for the people of Bonaire, thereby making the working class of Bonaire poorer. [7] The costs of living in Bonaire are somewhat higher than in the Netherlands, but the minimum wage is lower, therefore people are struggling to get by even when combining fulltime jobs. [8] Since the Netherlands do not allow a similar welfare system in Bonaire 40% of Bonaireans live below the poverty line, whereas this is 5 % in the European Netherlands. [7] There are clear lines of class (and racial)  segregation, as tourists and rich Dutch immigrants can be found in the luxurious beach clubs, whilst the people of Bonaire work in these clubs. [8] This is why, in 2022, there were large protests denouncing the inequality between Caribbean and European Netherlands. [8]

Climate Crisis Impacts:

The climate crisis is affecting the people of Bonaire disproportionately. Through, increasing temperatures, sea-level-rise, floods, food-insecurity and environmental degradation of the reefs and mangroves. [9] These effects, both directly impact the people of Bonaire as well as indirectly through the impact it will have on the tourism industry. The Dutch state has been lacking to effectively protect the people of Bonaire, as only in 2023 the state started with making a climate plan for Bonaire, which remains to be finished.[10] Moreover, a subsidy request to transform the energy supply of the island that was made by Bonaireans in 2020 kept on being ignored by the Dutch state in favour of reopening a diesel docking terminal.[11] On January 28th, 2026 the courts of The Hague ruled that the Dutch state has to take measures within the next one-and-a-half year to decrease the greenhouse gas emissions of their total economy, including Bonaire.[9]

Neocolonialism in Bonaire:

Bonaire is not in the process of decolonisation, let alone decolonised, but is stuck in a colonial power structure where there is a lack of self-determination. The current ties to the Dutch state, makes discrimination visible through the unequal treatment of Bonaireans with regards to social safety nets as well as climate action. Due to the fact that Bonaire is a public body of the Netherlands it is not possible to acquire climate finance through funds like the Green Climate Fund of the UN.[10] Apartheid and colonialism are not something from the past. The Netherlands need to repair their colonial damage, end climate injustice, and ensure the right to self-determination of the Bonairean people.

Download the full briefing for references.

Debt Briefing_ Bonaire_EN.pdf

Download PDF • 549KB