Netherlands Embroiled in New Race Row

A fresh debate about immigration has broken out in the Netherlands after one of the country's most prominent businessmen claimed that immigrants were responsible for the vast majority of incidents of shoplifting and street robbery.

In his company's annual report Jaap Blokker, co-owner of the Blokker supermarket chain, complained of "an entire asylum seekers and illegal immigrants industry" sustained by over-indulgent politically correct politicians.

The authorities preached multiculturalism, he said, but did nothing to protect shopkeepers from the "monoculturalism of street crime and robbery" which he claimed was largely committed by just three groups - Moroccans, East Europeans and immigrants from the Antilles.

His company yesterday refused to elaborate on his comments but politicians and many ordinary people have expressed support for his stance.

MKB Nederland, the country's largest employers' organisation, has said it too is concerned by the amount of crime committed by newcomers and has called on the government to get tough and impose longer prison sentences on immigrants caught shoplifting.

It claims that the lion's share of shoplifting in Rotterdam is perpetrated by immigrants and says it believes that the picture is the same nationwide.

But Rotterdam's police force said yesterday that it did not carry out racial profiling and had not released new figures on shoplifting. It admitted it was possible to profile criminals using their recorded birthplace.

One police source told the Guardian that a local government report earlier this year had shown that 90% of street crime in Rotterdam was committed by immigrants.

However, he stressed that as almost half of the port city's population was of foreign extraction, the figure was not as dramatic as it first looked.

Although Mr Blokker's comments have been well received in a country where the late Pim Fortuyn's anti-immigration party holds four cabinet positions, anti-racism groups have expressed alarm at the sweeping nature of the accusations.

"He [Mr Blokker] writes that every immigrant is the same, that they are all criminals and that just isn't true," said Hubert Firmena, director of the country's national bureau against discrimination (NBAD).

"It is discrimination and we will be studying his comments carefully to see if they break the law and to see if we can mount a legal challenge.

"It is true that we have big problems with immigration in this country but you can't lump everyone together."

NBAD has requested a meeting with Mr Blokker to try to understand why he chose to use his firm's annual report to launch such a scathing attack upon immigrants. However, so far its overtures have been rebuffed.

The flamboyant Fortuyn may be dead, killed by an assassin, but the immigration debate which he triggered is still very much alive.

· An Islamic charity in the Netherlands denied any links with Palestinian terrorists yesterday, after an organisation in Germany with the same name and the same chairman was raided on Monday and closed on suspicion of funneling money to the militant group Hamas. The two charities are both called Al-Aqsa, and share the same chairman, Mahmoud Amr.