THE HAGUE, 24/09/05 - No less than 77 percent of staff at international organisations in The Hague and environs want to leave the Netherlands. This emerges from a leaked internal opinion poll by IOSA-NL.

IOSA-NL is the partnership between the staff associations of the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), International Criminal Court (ICC), International Court of Justice, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and other international organisations in The Hague and environs.

Reasons for the discontent are dissatisfaction with health care, tax problems, problems with residence permits, bad weather, the language, the food, expensive child-care, difficulties in finding suitable housing, environmental pollution, high population density and the growing distrust of foreigners among the Dutch. "There is a widespread perception that international organisations and the people that work there are no longer welcome in the Netherlands," the draft report concludes.

The 'internationals' experience as positive the widespread knowledge of the English language in the Netherlands and the good bicycle-path network, as well as the "well-organised nature of Dutch society" and the country's central location in Europe, according to the report, 'At home in Holland?'

The Hague city council has declined to comment "on a report whose contents we do not know." The city has however heard similar complaints in the past. Services in the Netherlands are, for example, found very slow. "But as far as we know, something has been done by the cabinet about these complaints," according to a council spokesman.

Over 3,400 participated in the survey, held over the summer. This represents over 60 percent of the staff of the affiliated international organisations. IOSA-NL will discuss the findings of the survey with the Dutch authorities.

Staff of ICTY, OPCW, the European Patent Office in Rijswijk, the European Space Agency (ESA) and The Hague NATO office NC3A participated in the survey. IOSA-NL stresses that the results from the various international organisations varied widely. The highest proportion of dissatisfied staff is at OPCW, where 88 percent of respondents consider the organisation should leave the Netherlands.?