Drunk or disorderly people causing more problems at Schiphol

A growing number of people have been causing issues at Schiphol Airport, which then can lead to more delays with processing passengers. The Marechaussee said that it had to respond to 173 incidents last year where people caused trouble on aircraft, up from 146 in 2021, and 114 before the coronavirus pandemic, according to figures provided to the Telegraaf and ANP.

A total of 34 people were arrested in the incidents that took place last year, the Marechaussee said. The branch of the military is tasked with securing the airport and providing border control measures there. Some of the cases on airplanes involved fights, people who were drunk, smoking inside an airplane, or fights over use of face masks, ANP reported.

Additionally, the Marechaussee had to deal with a total of 2,000 incidents at the airport caused by people who were drunk, under the influence of drugs, mentally disturbed, or who were disorderly in some other way. That was an increase from 1,200 before the pandemic, the Telegraaf said.

Aside from more incidents on aircraft, the Marechaussee has seen more cases of people at the airport with weapons. There has also been an uptick in pickpocket cases, and other suspicious situations, the newspaper reported. On top of that, the Marechaussee has to investigate 20 cases daily where single parents try to depart with a child alone but without the proper paperwork. They also have to produce about 22 emergency passports on average per day.

As the number of incidents requiring a response from the military branch rise higher, there are fewer people available to staff the passport control counters. The security that we all want means that you sometimes have to queue,” a representative of the Marechaussee told the newspaper.

Even before the pandemic, the Marechaussee personnel raised concerns about staffing levels at the airport. However, now that the service has to respond more frequently to more issues, many passengers are likely to face longer queues at the airport, particularly arriving passengers waiting at passport control.

Ever since Brexit, the Marechaussee also has to check people going to or coming from the United Kingdom.