You had better watch out if you are approached by a Dutch policeman of Moroccan descent – he could be a spy. And do you know what his dastardly mission is? To frustrate the integration process of Moroccan immigrants into Dutch society.

This shock-horror revelation centres on a Rotterdam police sargent who, according to a tv news programme, was sacked after it emerged he was working for the Moroccan secret service.
Apart from frustrating the integration process it is unclear what else he could have been up to. The public prosecutor was quoted as saying that it does not have sufficient evidence to take him to court. And the police would only say that the case involved ‘a serious neglect of duty’.
Still, the media have hyped up the story, quoting prominent Dutch Moroccans saying that the secret service regularly approaches them. In fact, the agency also works closely with its Dutch counterpart AIVD to combat extremism.
The strange thing about this story is that the police officer was actively involved in improving integration, working on work-experience projects for school drop-outs from immigrant communities. He himself is a perfect example of a successful integration.
It’s a sad fact that if a crime story concerns someone with an ethnic background it gets more column inches in the press, which in turn feeds all kinds of nationalist drum-banging.
Looking at the facts, rather than its emotive aspect, the story doesn’t deserve such attention. Or maybe the press should probe further and expose how far the Dutch secret service’s tentacles have penetrated Morocco?