Netherlands starts six months of extra border controls
From today, the Koninklijke Marechaussee will perform extra border controls. Asylum Minister Marjolein Faber announced the measure last month to combat “irregular migration” and human trafficking. As the government did not increase the Marechausee’s capacity, road users crossing the borders will likely not notice much.
There are over 800 border crossings between the Netherlands and Belgium and Germany. Marver, the trade union for the Marechaussee, previously told the Telegraaf that they’ve managed to allocate another 50 people to the border controls. So most of the borders will still be unmanned.
There will be no boom gates or traffic stops. Instead, the Marechaussee - a policing force that works as part of the Dutch military and is responsible for border security - will continue with its standard practice of checking cars at random from mobile checkpoints, only with 50 more officers doing so. Therefore, travelers intending to cross the border are advised to carry their ID documents with them, but few should be affected by the checks.
A spokesperson for the Marechaussee confirmed to NOS that the border controls won’t look very different from today, there will mainly be more of them. The new, temporary rules mainly allow the Marechaussee to carry out checks in one place for longer and to stop more people. The same goes for international trains. Before today, Marechaussee officers were allowed to check up to four compartments on certain routes. That limit no longer applies.
The extra border controls received a great deal of criticism. During a debate with Minister Faber on Wednesday, parliamentarians accused the Ministry of keeping them in the dark. Questions from the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch parliament, remained unanswered for months and parliamentarians still had little to no information about the impact of the controls on commuting and how the Minster was going to manage them.
The border municipalities also expressed their concerns. The mayors of 46 municipalities called the measures unclear and feared “unnecessary inconvenience” to locals and entrepreneurs.
