The Netherlands will start additional border checks on December 9th as a means to combat “irregular migration and migrant smuggling,” migration minister Marjolein Faber announced after the Dutch cabinet approved the measure on Monday.
The government had hoped to launch the border controls sooner but as a member of the free-movement Schengen zone, it first needed approval from Brussels. European Union rules permit the implementation of temporary border checks for serious reasons, including internal security, but require four weeks between the announcement and the implementation of additional border surveillance.
Germany put border checks in place in September, following numerous knife attacks largely perpetrated by illegal immigrants. German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said at the time that border checks within the free-movement zone of the Schengen Area are necessary until the EU’s external borders are sufficiently reinforced through joint action.
The Dutch government said their border controls will be in effect for six months and that it hoped “to find a balance between effective migration control and maintaining cross-border cooperation in economic and social terms.”
The Netherlands has hundreds of border crossing points with Germany and Belgium and the government did not provide details about where the border control measures would take place. It indicated only that the Royal Military Police, responsible for border control, would gradually expand border controls and that the increased work would be carried out within the parameters of the current budget and available personnel.
It further stated that the checks would not slow commuter traffic at the borders.
