Dutch patrols begin tighter monitoring of border

The Netherlands will not be closing its borders for the time being, but the marechaussee will be performing extra controls in the border regions to monitor whether more refugees are entering the country. The Marechaussee is a policing agency operating as a branch of the military. Security and Justice State Secretary Klaas Dijkhoff said this to news wire ANP shortly before the start of the European meeting on refugees in Brussels on Monday. "This is a method to quickly see whether the flow is moving to the Netherlands", Dijkhoff said. "In this way we can check whether human traffickers are choosing a different route and try to take the wind out of their sales." Earlier on Monday VVD parliamentarian Malik Azmani told broadcaster NOS that the Netherlands will have to intensify border controls if the European ministers can't manage to find a structural solution for the refugee crisis. On Sunday Germany, Austria and Slovakia intensified border controls in an effort to deal with the large number of refugees trying to enter the EU via the Balkan route. Poland is also considering temporary measures. The meeting on the refugee crisis started at 3:00 p.m. It is attended by European Ministers of Home Affairs and Security and Justice. One of the main topics on the agenda is the redistribution of about 160 thousand refugees to give Greece, Italy and Hungary some relief. The goal is to reach a basic agreement on that today. Dijkhoff will also be arguing for the Dutch cabinet's proposal to invest in refugee shelters in their own regions and to only give asylum rights to refugees who really cannot find a safe place in their own regions.