Lower House Annuls “Illegals Quota”
THE HAGUE, 19/10/13 - A large majority in the Lower House has asked the cabinet to abolish the ‘illegals quota’. This means that no targets can be set for the number of illegal aliens to be arrested.
Labour (PvdA), centre-let D66, small Christian party ChristenUnie, the Socialist Party (SP), the leftwing Greens (GroenLinks), Party for Animals and 50PLUS have adopted a motion from ChristenUnie MP Joël Voordewind. This calls on the cabinet to “drop the quantitative directives for arresting rejected aliens without letting go of punishable antecedents.” Justice State Secretary Fred Teeven responded laconically. According to Teeven, the motion does not alter much. “There is no illegals quota and we already do not steer solely by figures. We have quantitative and qualitative goals.” Voordewind however considers a milestone has been reached. “The order for the police has been removed by the motion. Police chiefs now no longer have to arrest a fixed number of illegals any more. Only criminal persons will be arrested.” The quota was part of policy set in motion by the previous coalition of conservatives (VVD), Christian democrats (CDA) and Party for Freedom (PVV). According to Voordewind, Teeven is trying to trivialise the motion, “as he feels the hot breath of the PVV down his neck.” The PvdA government party helped the opposition to a majority for the motion. The PvdA congress had already said earlier that the quota must disappear. Apart from all this, the police did not meet the quota. They arrested 3,220 aliens between June 2012 and Jne 2013, where the target was 4,000. |