In a heated debate on migration policy in the Netherlands, citizens themselves began to organise vehicle checks at the German border.
On Saturday night on the 408, which runs from the German Haren (Ems) in Lower Saxony towards the central reception center for migrants in Ter Appeal in the Netherlands, people equipped with retro-reflective vests and flashlights stopped cars – they supply media. There's footage of those controls. About 12 men attended. As they said, they are dissatisfied with the fact that migrants were freely crossing the border with Holland.
"Citizen checks". Minister reacts
On Sunday evening, the German and Dutch police, according to DPA, interrupted another specified action. erstwhile again, dozens of Dutch citizens gathered at the border to prevent possible migrants entering the Netherlands from entering Germany. As reported by the broadcaster RTV Noord, police officers determined the identity of the persons active in the action.
However, the relations between the services are inconsistent: according to the paper "Algemeen Dagblad" police on the Dutch side of the border only checked the identity of activists, but did not intervene. Around midnight on Monday, the men active were to leave the area peacefully.
Last week the Dutch government collapsed in a dispute over the tightening of asylum policy. Minister of Justice and Acting Minister of Migration David van Weel called on Sunday evening for people not to take justice into their own hands, but to let services to operate.
"The influx of asylum seekers must be reduced. That is why we are pushing for stricter asylum rules and better border control," the minister said. "Frustration is understood, but do not take the law into your own hands. Let the police and border police do their job. Obey the law," appealed van Weel.
Wilders heats up conflict
On the another hand, right-wing populist Geert Wilders, who broke the coalition last week, says that local patrols are a "fantastic initiative". "It should happen anywhere on the border," he said. As he stated, if the Prime Minister did not deploy the troops immediately to carry out the inspection, "we should do it ourselves." He besides declared his engagement in specified an action.
On Tuesday, Wilders announced his party's withdrawal from the government coalition. This was justified by the reluctance of another coalition partners to tighten migration policy.
The Dutch police and the Westerwolde border municipality have announced that stopping cars by outsiders is prohibited – the right to do so has only services. "Such actions make highly dangerous situations on and along the road," they stated in a joint message reported by the paper "De Gelderlander". "Such actions are truly unacceptable".
Konrols at the German border
Since autumn 2024 Germany has expanded random checks to all its borders, including those with the Netherlands. As the DW reporters then checked, these procedures did not fundamentally change life in border regions, e.g. tiny Vaals, just off the German-Dutch border. Nothing different happened here just after extended border controls were introduced. Traffic on the one-lane way from this city to Aquizgran, Germany was conducted without disruption.
