The police are unlikely to reach their target of arresting 4,000 criminal or illegal immigrants this year, the Telegraaf reports on Tuesday.

Since the creation of a national police force at the beginning of this year, extra checks have been made on companies to ensure they do not employ illegal immigrants. Nevertheless, the annual target will not be reached, the paper says.

Between June 2012 and June this year, 3,220 illegal and criminal immigrants were arrested, the paper says. The Telegraaf used freedom of information legislation to obtain the figures.

This is 10% down on 2012 as a whole and shows the police will not meet the revised target of 4,000.

‘One reason could be that there are fewer illegal immigrants,’ a police spokesman told the paper. ‘But we could also be looking in the wrong places.’

The use of targets or quotas to track down illegal immigrants is controversial within the coalition government. Many Labour party members are opposed to the use of quotas for catching illegal immigrants