The Dutch "no" camp, which polls predict will win Wednesday's referendum on the EU constitution with a staggering 60 percent, has received a boost from growing anti-immigrant sentiment in the Netherlands.

Recent surveys show that 40 percent of "no" voters said they fear the constitution would pave the way for mainly Muslim Turkey to become an EU member and 40 percent also said they were opposed to the European Union's enlargement.

Despite the fact the "yes" campaigners have insisted these issues have nothing to do with the constitution, the small far-right parties campaigning for the "no" have managed to put immigration in the spotlight.

Populist Geert Wilders, who defected from the Liberals to form his eponymous far-right party with one seat in parliament, consistently warned during the campaign of the loss of national identity and of an "invasion" of immigrants if Turkey joins the EU.

"We must keep our autonomy in the field of immigration. Never should a Brussels official or a French politician be allowed to decide how many immigrants the Netherlands should allow," he said.

The right-wing populist List Pim Fortuyn (LPF), named after the slain politician who was the first to tap into the anti-immigrant mood in the country, also argued the treaty would cause an influx of immigrants.

"With the possible accession of Turkey and Ukraine (together good for some 130 million inhabitants) out frontiers will be open to a sizable number of immigrant workers and their families," the party's campaign flyers said.

Ever since Fortuyn was murdered by an animal rights activist in 2002, and especially since police said they suspected an Islamic extremist had committed the murder of controversial film-maker Theo van Gogh last year, immigration has topped the agenda of issues debated in the country.

Although the LPF and Geert Wilders together hold just nine seats in the 150-seat parliament they have managed to tap into a underlying current of fear that could account for their success in the EU referendum campaign.

"They have the idea that everything that is not Dutch threatens their identity," Sophie Vanhoonacker, director of Maastricht University's European Studies program, told AFP.

"The Dutch worry the eastern Europeans will come 'to steal our jobs'. They fear the loss of employment and prosperity," she explains.

Of the Netherlands' more than 16 million inhabitants, 1.6 million are immigrants, making up about 10 percent of the population, according to the central statistics agency CBS.

About half of all immigrants in the country are described by CBS as "Westerners", meaning they originally come from Europe, the United States, Oceania, Japan or the former Dutch colony of Indonesia.

Despite fears for an influx of immigrant workers after the EU's enlargement to take in 10 mainly central and eastern European states, figures so far show there has been no such rise.

The Dutch government has limited access to the Netherlands for immigrants from the new member countries through 2006 at least, blocking them from legally working in the country unless their employer can prove that no Dutch candidate was available for the job.

Out of a total of 44,111 work permits handed out in 2004, 20,190 were given to Polish workers and 1,455 were to Czech workers, according to the Center for Work and Income (CWI).

"People who worry about a massive influx (of immigrant workers) should be aware of the fact that these work permits have been given in sectors where it is very difficult to find Dutch labor," CWI spokeswoman Christina Boomsma told