Dutch cabinet intensifies border controls

Border controls in the Netherlands have been tightened with immediate effect, Klaas Dijkhoff, state secretary for security and justice, announced here on Monday.

Combating human trafficking and curbing the influx of asylum seekers are priorities of the Dutch government, and the cabinet hopes the stricter border controls will stop the traffickers and economic migrants.

The military police are now using additional mobile checkpoints on the highway at the borders. As well, new speed restrictions allow them to have a better view of the traffic entering the country.

The mobile security checks are used to identify human smugglers, but also to identify migratory flows. Since September last year, the military police have already been carrying out random checks at the borders with Belgium and Germany.

According to Dijkhoff, the tightening of controls does not mean real border controls will be reintroduced in the Netherlands. Since the Schengen zone was created in 1995, 26 European countries have abolished the need to show passports at their common borders along with any other type of border control.

The number of arrests related to smuggling at mobile security checkpoints in January rose to 32. Since the intensification of controls in September 2015, the amount of arrests rose from an average of 14 to an average of 23 per month.

In 2015, the country's military police arrested 330 people on suspicion of human trafficking. About 200 of these arrests were made during mobile checks. Endit