300 held during NSS border controls in March

The Netherlands arrested some 100 people while executing extra border controls during the Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) in March this year.

State Secretary of Justice Fred Teeven informed the Second Chamber today that most of the arrests for what can be considered "Immigration crimes": human smuggling, human trafficking, and forged and fake travel documents. The border controls were carried out from March 14 to 28 by 1,250 civil servants at the border with Germany and Belgium, on the waterways and main airports. They encountered 180 foreigners traveling without the correct documents. Thirty of them applied for asylum. Teeven wrote that he was satisfied with how the temporary controls went. He said that they worked preventive and contributed to the smooth progress of the NSS summit in The Hague that brought several world leaders to the Netherlands, including US President Barack Obama. Teeven said the controls also helped to understand more about the migrants who travel to the Netherlands via other European countries.