At least 180,000 autochthonous and allochthonous people are carriers of a large spectrum of hemoglobinopathies in The Netherlands. We describe two cases, the first, a 33-year old Surinamese Creole woman, studied because of an intermediate hemolytic anemia; the second, a couple requesting analysis because of a previously diagnosed carrier state in the male partner, while the carrier state in the pregnant female was uncertain.