The Netherlands has decided to close its borders to stop the influx of migrants. From December 9th, Dutch cross-border police will begin carrying out additional and tighter controls at the borders with Germany and Belgium. This was announced by Immigration Minister Marjolein Faber.
The minister did not go into detail about how the additional controls work, but said that the Marechausseethe Dutch military police, will not require additional personnel to carry them out. Faber stressed that particular attention will be paid to mitigating as much as possible the impact of such inspections on freight transport and cross-border commuters.
Border police are currently carrying out spot checks on trains and road crossings while other measures include withdrawing refugees’ rights to permanent residency permits and repatriating people to areas of Syria deemed “safe”. The declared commitment of the new radical right-led government is to establish the “toughest refugee regime ever”.
The clash with the EU
In September Faber sent a letter to the European Commission announcing that the government led by Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom, allied in Brussels with Matteo Salvini’s League, was intending to distance itself from the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum. “This government aims to drastically reduce the volume of immigration to the Netherlands, in order to continue fulfilling our constitutional duties, providing public housing, healthcare and education,” Faber had written in the letter. To obtain it, Amsterdam is ready to ask for a derogation from EU rules.
But the move could also lead to a clash with the European Union, given that there is no provision in the treaties for a country to obtain an exemption from a certain policy.
