Dutch Slavery Toll Estimated Five Times Higher

Why this is here: Between 660,000 and 1.1 million people were trafficked via Dutch-owned ports in the Indian Ocean, rivaling the scale of the transatlantic slave trade but largely absent from Dutch national memory.

Investigative journalist Leendert van der Valk argues Dutch slavery impacted as many as 5.3 million people, a figure far exceeding the commonly cited 600,000. His new book, Vergeten plekken, vergeten mensen, draws on demographic research from Radboud University Nijmegen and historical work on trade across the Indian Ocean. The official count traditionally focuses on the transatlantic slave trade, overlooking the larger scale of slavery in the Indian Ocean and subsequent generations born into it.

Van der Valk details how Dutch slavery extended beyond Suriname and Curaçao to places like Taiwan and the coasts of India, locations often missing from education and apologies. Researchers estimate between 660,000 and 1.1 million people were trafficked through Dutch ports in the Indian Ocean. High child mortality rates among enslaved people further complicate accurate accounting, as children were often unrecorded until they could contribute economically.

The book notes that recent Dutch apologies for slavery focused on Caribbean colonies and Suriname, excluding Indonesia and South Africa. While the research offers a more complete picture of the scale of Dutch slavery, estimating the full impact remains difficult, and the issue of contemporary slavery persists in some regions.