Dutch border police arrest some 200 potential human smugglers

Dutch border police have arrested 200 people on suspicion of human smuggling since tighter border controls were introduced last September, RTL news said on Wednesday.

In total, over 200,000 people were checked in the period up to mid-January, defence minister Jeanine Hennis is quoted as telling MPs in a briefing. The Dutch borders are patrolled by flying squads of military police officers.

The minister did not give any further details and it is not clear how many actual cases of human trafficking are being investigated. Last year, 57 human traffickers were jailed in the Netherlands, according to recent law council figures.

Go slow

The border controls were further tightened up at the beginning of February after the justice ministry decided more needed to be done. All traffic is being told to slow down at border crossings so immigration police can decide which cars to stop and search for asylum seekers and illegal immigrants.

Since September, the military police have been mounting random checks on the roads, at airports, on international trains and the waterways. Any asylum seekers who are identified at the border are taken to an assessment centre by the police for their cases to be investigated.