Measures needed to stop paedophiles going abroad, MPs say

Photo: Depositphotos.com
Photo: Depositphotos.com

A majority of MPs back the idea of confiscating the passports of convicted paedophiles so they cannot travel abroad, the Telegraaf said on Thursday.

This, MPs say, would prevent them going on to abuse children in countries such as Thailand and Cambodia. Judges can now impose a travel ban but rarely do, the paper said.

The call, backed by MPs from the coalition VVD and CDA, the anti-Islam PVV and the Labour party, follows the case of Hans V, a convicted paedophile in the Netherlands who went on to abuse young girls at an orphanage he founded in Kenya.

‘There is a reason why the law allows for long-term supervision,’ Christian Democrat MP Madeleine van Toorenburg told the paper. ‘But if sex offenders have a normal passport, that law is vulnerable.’

‘We want to be sure that paedophiles cannot strike again abroad,’ said Labour MP Attje Kuiken.

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