The Bonaire Human Rights Organization (BHRO) is issuing an urgent SOS call to the international community. Bonaire is facing a silent humanitarian and demographic crisis that threatens the long-term survival of the native Bonairean people.
In 2004, Ramonsito Booi of the UPB, along with other political leaders, were the architects of the constitutional process that dismantled the Netherlands Antilles. Without the consent of its people, they degraded Bonaire to a new, subordinate constitutional status as a “public entity,” administered and governed from The Hague. At that time, Bonaire had a population of approximately 10,008, mostly native Bonaireans.
In 2017, the Island Council approved anchoring Bonaire into the Dutch Constitution, without the freely expressed will of the people. By January 1, 2026, the population had reached 27,611, with recent growth driven largely by immigration. In 2025, Bonaire recorded only 252 births, 170 deaths, and 2,116 immigrants, proving that immigration, not natural growth, is the primary driver of population increase.
According to official CBS data, Bonaire’s population is expected to grow to approximately 34,200 by 2035. The percentage of native-born inhabitants is projected to continue declining. If current trends continue, native Bonaireans may become less than 15% of the population within the next decade, turning them into a small minority in their own homeland.
Institutional factors contributing to this demographic and cultural displacement include declining birth rates among native Bonaireans, rising mortality, and a difficult economic situation following the constitutional changes of October 10, 2010. Furthermore, rising land and property taxes, skyrocketing housing costs, and the increasing cost of living have forced many native Bonaireans to sell their ancestral lands, family homes, and local businesses, or leave Bonaire entirely to seek affordable opportunities elsewhere.
The BHRO calls upon CARICOM, the OECS, the OAS, the United Nations, and other international bodies to urgently examine the situation in Bonaire and take action to protect the fundamental human rights, identity, language, and heritage of the native Bonairean people before this silent humanitarian crisis becomes irreversible.