Dutch-Iranian students barred from sensitive scientific nuclear research

Openness and nuclear technology - unfortunately don't mix. The Dutch government has for over a year banned Iranian students from gaining visas to study at universities where sensitive subjects such as nuclear science are taught. That would seem to have been expanded to restrict Dutch-Iranian students from studying the same.

Iranian students and lecturers at several Dutch universities have taken the state to court over a ban on Iranians being given access to sensitive scientific research, such as nuclear physics.

Listen here: Iranian students protest the decision

At Thursday's hearing at a court in The Hague, the students argued that the ban violates Dutch freedom of education and research. It is also discriminatory, as the ban applies to every Iranian national - even if they have lived in the Netherlands for decades, or if they were born in the Netherlands to Iranian parents.

Banned
One of the plaintiffs is Behnam Taebi, who is a physics lecturer at Delft University. He is planning to gain his doctorate at the same university, but the new ruling by the Dutch state bars him from doing so. “I’m currently banned from entering certain locations at my university, for instance Delft’s [nuclear] reactor institute,” he told Radio Netherlands Worldwide.

The Dutch government says it's simply following a United Nations resolution that states that member states can implement restrictions to scholars and scientists from Iran, but Mr Taebi disagrees.

“There is no other member of the United Nations that has interpreted these sanctions in such a drastic manner. There is no categorical exclusion of Iranians anywhere in the world. If you want to protect sensitive information, that certainly can be done. But that doesn’t mean you should exclude a certain nationality. It’s based on a very naive perception of science”.

“You’re also assuming that there is a danger solely from Iranians”, Mr Taebi adds. “Even from Dutch Iranians. I’m a Dutch citizen and I’m banned from these locations as well. A problem could be caused by anyone, not just Iranians”.

UN resolution
The lawyer representing the Dutch state said at the hearing that the Dutch policy fully complies with the UN resolution. “In general, it’s the nature of sanctions that many people are affected. We agree that that is the case here. If that means that some Iranians who work in Dutch scientific research and who have no wrong intentions are affected, then we have to admit that sometimes the good must suffer from the works of the bad”.

Embarrassment
The Dutch know what the consequences can be if people with a hidden agenda have access to sensitive information. In the 1970s and 1980s, secret technology from the Dutch Urenco nuclear facility was smuggled into Pakistan and Iran by Pakistani researcher Abdul Qadeer Khan, who worked for Urenco. He was later dubbed “the father of the Pakistan atomic bomb”, as he used the Urenco technology illegally in Pakistan’s nuclear industry. The Dutch government apparently wants to avoid a second international embarrassment in this field.

“I’m a spy?”
The hearing was attended by dozens of Iranian students, most of whom are supporting the plaintiffs. “So I’m a spy, then?”, a female physics student at Utrecht University said wryly outside the court room. “Apparently they think we’re all evil and that we’ll send all kinds of information to Iran. It’s stupid”. Being a physics student, she knows she will encounter certain restrictions later on.

“I’m still at my bachelor stage, but if I want to choose a master, I believe I can’t choose anything that has to do with nuclear physics. I could ask for permission, but the thing about it is that only Iranian students have to apply for that and that’s wrong”.

Integration
Another student said this ruling sends the wrong signal to all nationalities in the Netherlands who are encouraged to integrate into Dutch society. “If one of the nationalities in this country is trying to integrate as best as possible – they study and work hard – and then take them as a bad example and punish them, you cannot blame other nationalities for sticking up the middle finger to the state”.

Radio Netherlands