Amsterdam mayor apologises for city’s past role in slave trade

Femke Halsema says city's past is indivisible from the persistent racism that still festers'

The mayor of Amsterdam has apologised for former governors' extensive involvement in the global slave trade, saying the moment had come for the city to confront its grim history.

Debate about the city's role in the slave trade has been going on for years but has gained more attention amid the global reckoning with racial injustice that followed the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.