Deport undocumented migrants who are repeat-offenders, police union says

The government needs to arrange that undocumented migrants who are repeat offenders can be deported from the Netherlands as soon as possible, police union NPB said to Hart van Nederland. According to the union, such repeat offenders cost the police too much time and effort. Minister Ferdinand Grapperhaus of Justice and Security said that he is taking the appeal seriously.

NPB made this appeal after community police officer Bas Wijnen in Alkmaar tweeted about a repeat-offender who doesn't have a residency permit for the Netherlands. According to the officer, the man from Morocco was fined for theft, threats and intimidation at a shopping center, after he had just been released from a 2-year-long prison sentence. The police system showed that the man already had 579 previous registrations against him, the officer said. "I continue to find it strange that we cannot put such a person on a plane to their country of origin," he tweeted.

The police union regularly receives similar complaints about repeat offenders with no residency permits, chairman Jan Struijs said to Hart van Nederland. The union calls on politicians to take action. "We see that the countries of their origin no longer take back these people. That is a political problem. There is a lot of talk about it in the Tweede Kamer [the lower house of Dutch parliament], but the reality is that these people, especially young men, are walking around, have no income and are committing crimes all the time," Struijs said.

Dealing with such repeat offenders costs the police a lot of time, Struijs said. "You have to arrest such a person, you have to transfer him, he as to be locked up, the police report has to be drawn up, you have to write down what happened. You just lost six hours to someone like that. We would rather use that capacity to solve murders or do other serious business. It takes a lot of capacity."

Grappperhaus told Hart van Nederland that he takes the union's appeal seriously. "We really have to look: can we do something with it legally or administratively, or should we enter into a political discussion about it? I take all the cries for help that come from the police seriously, because I think they have a very difficult task," the Justice Minister said.