Too many people still fall through the cracks when it comes to municipal debt counseling, according to National Ombudsman Reinier van Zutphen in a new report. The municipalities are improving, but the ombudsman still has concerns, ANP reports.
"It must be faster and better", Van Zutphen said in his report. "Several studies show that debts are harmful, especially for families with children. Municipalities should work on that."
Mayor Femke Halsema of Amsterdam is making an "ultimate attempt" to convince the lower house of Dutch parliament to hire more police officers. She is discussing this matter with Minister Ferdinand Grapperhaus of Justice and Security, the Telegraaf reports.
Halsema toured Amsterdam's Red Light District during the early hours of Saturday morning, according to the newspaper. She denies that there is complete "lawlessness", as Amsterdam's ombudsman Arre Zuurmond said in previous reports. "But it is true that there are far too few enforcers and officers."
The measures the Amsterdam municipality is taking against crowds in the city center are not reducing problems for residents, Amsterdam Ombudsman Arre Zuurmond said in a new report. The inner city is "a jungle at night, in which survival of the fittest applies and in which the government is intolerably absent", the Ombudsman said, Het Parool reports.
A woman with expertise in children’s issues, special education and refugee rights is at the top of a list of candidates to replace outgoing child advocate Marc Dullaert in the Netherlands. Margrite Kalverboer, a professor at the Groningen University is expected to replace Dullaert, whose appointment was not renewed.
Football lawyer Frank van Ardenne is advising the 326 Feyenoord supporters arrested before the match against Roda JC in Rotterdam on Sunday, not to pay the fines imposed on them. "He who pays the fine pleads guilty and gets a criminal record", the lawyer said
The National Ombudsman passed an extremely harsh judgement on former State Secretary of Finance Frans Weekers for his wrong approach to the Bulgarian fraud a year ago.
The Second Chamber has officially appointed Guido van Woerkom as National Ombudsman today.
The Ombudsman for the elderly calls on people to report cases of elderly couples being separated because of an admittance in a home or institution.
Police in The Hague have received neighborhood complaints about excessive violence, intimidation and discriminatory behavior.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs published a 153-page-report on human rights in the European Union on its website, Wednesday, of which 9 pages (in the English version) are dedicated to the Netherlands.
