Amsterdam’s Scum Villages

Amsterdam

‘Scum villages’: Families that persistently behave badly and harass
their neighbors are to be evicted from city-run housing projects
and moved into trailer parks that have “minimal services” and
are under constant police supervision. The new housing camps
have been dubbed “scum villages” by the Dutch media, because
the plan appears to echo a proposal by right-wing populist Geert
Wilders, who urged last year that asocial urbanites be “sent to
a village for scum. Put all the trash together.” A city spokesman
denied that the plan would create ghettos of uncontrollable troublemakers
on the outskirts of Amsterdam. “On the other hand,”
he said, “the aim of this scheme is not to reward people with a
brand-new, five-room home with a south-facing garden.”