Woman resident for 90 years must take out Dutch nationality

Jan 3, 2007, 10:04 GMT

Amsterdam - A woman of 93, who was born and has lived all but three years of her life in the Netherlands, has been told she must undergo naturalization, complete with ceremony in the local town hall, news reports said Wednesday.

Gerda Bekker-Ten Damme will don a bright bonnet in the national colour of orange for the event on Thursday in the Loppersum Town Hall in the northern province of Groningen, her son told the Volkskrant newspaper.

'When I heard that she would have to go through with the ceremony, I said: Ma, we're going to make a real party out of it,' Norbert Bekker said.

Bekker plans to deck out his mother's wheelchair with orange streamers and ask the local musicians to lay on patriotic music for the event that comes just before her 94th birthday.

Bekker-Ten Damme ran into trouble with her bank when it appeared her German passport - taken out when she married a German - had expired.

Her residence permit had also run out, leaving her technically an illegal resident.

The Loppersum local authority said initially she had to renew her German passport, but that would have meant a trip to the consulate in Amsterdam - an arduous undertaking for the ailing lady.

Norbert Bekker finally persuaded a local official to relent. 'I'm still grateful to him,' he told the Volkskrant, particularly as the official concerned could face a reprimand from The Hague.

Bekker-Ten Damme had hung on to her German nationality, so that her son could avoid military service. 'And later, with European unification, it was of scant importance. The only disadvantage was that she could not vote,' her son said.

Naturalization has become a hot issue in the Netherlands, with its million-strong Muslim population of Moroccan and Turkish descent.

Candidates are required to brush up on arcane aspects of Dutch culture and history to pass the necessary test ahead of going through a ceremony to get their documents. Many native Dutch have commented that they would never get through the procedure.