A number of people have been arrested and released in recent days in connection with the sharp rise in asylum seekers in the Netherlands, junior justice minister Fred Teeven said on Tuesday.

Teeven did not say how many people were arrested, but did say none were chief suspects in the investigation. The arrests were made in Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

Last week Teeven said 1,000 asylum seekers a week are now arriving in the Netherlands, compared with 1,000 a month at the beginning of the year. Most are from Eritrea.

Routes

The investigation into human smuggling is focusing on the routes used to bring people into the Netherlands.

Teeven also plans to give the border police greater controls in international trains and buses. For example, the border police would be allowed to check international trains if they suspect a large number of refugees are among the passengers.

Under EU rules, refugees are supposed to ask for asylum in the first EU country they reach. The immigration service IND has taken on 150 temporary members of staff to process the applications and to act as interpreters.

Parliament will debate the increase in refugee numbers later on Tuesday.