ANPDilan Yesilgöz
NOS News•yesterday, 4:36 PM•Adjusted yesterday, 10:03 PM
The Ministry of Justice and Security did not comply with the tender rules when hiring a security company to keep neighborhoods around asylum seeker centers safe. This is evident from research by NRC.
According to the newspaper, there were also major concerns within the Aliens Police about the way in which the ministry had to make decisions about potential nuisance causes. It was feared that it would lead to ethnic profiling.
According to the newspaper, the ministry appointed a nuisance coordinator at the request of Minister Yesilgöz. This coordinator, Kees Loef, was tasked with combating the nuisance caused by a group of asylum seekers from countries such as Morocco or Algeria who have little or no chance of obtaining a residence permit.
Loef is known to Yesilgöz: they both worked for the municipality of Amsterdam in the past. There they worked as safety management advisors to combat nuisance caused by the approximately six hundred largest repeat offenders in the city. “They needed me because they couldn’t reach an agreement with the ministry. Nobody did anything,” says Loef in NRC. “My assignment was: do something, solve it.”
Street coach
Loef appointed a team that partly consisted of people he knew from his time in Amsterdam. He hired a security company from a former kickboxer who worked for the municipality as an advisor, street coach and supervisor of other street coaches. That company monitors asylum seeker centers.
That cost 3 million euros. According to the rules, the ministry should have put the job out to tender at such high costs, but that did not happen. “They also started to grumble at the ministry. But the minister said: we are just going to do this,” Loef said in the newspaper.
‘Forcing speed’
The ministry acknowledges that the procurement rules were not followed, but states in a response that there was “compelling urgency”. The ministry has now launched a tender for expansion in other municipalities.
Research by NRC also shows that there were objections within the Aliens Police about the way in which the ministry wanted to tackle the nuisance. A trial was said to have been started in which the Aliens Police had to remove potential troublemakers upon the arrival of the asylum seekers.
It was feared that this would amount to ethnic profiling. A source at the Aliens Police tells the newspaper: “We heard at the ministry: this is what the minister wants. I said: the minister can want as much as he wants, but it doesn’t work that way, does it?”
‘Not the intention’
According to the newspaper, the boss of the Aliens Police did not want to cooperate and the plan was adjusted. According to the ministry, there have been discussions with the police “about concerns regarding ethnic profiling. It has been clearly communicated that this is of course not the intention.”
It is also not always clear why someone is taken to a special location that is suitable for causing nuisance. “We have deliberately not defined what we mean by nuisance from the pilot. Because we do not want to be limited,” the IND coordinator told NRC.
‘Too far’
In response to the article, Vluchtelingenwerk Nederland stated that it believes the approach to nuisance-causing asylum seekers goes too far. The article states, among other things, that those causing nuisance at the special location are only allowed to go outside for one hour a day; experts say it’s more or less like they’re living in a prison.
“The major inconvenience caused by a handful of asylum seekers undermines support for the reception of almost all other asylum seekers, who have nothing to do with this and are wrongly regarded as such. The minister and state secretary can be expected to also see this distinction and “, says Refugee Council. “But the NRC research shows a completely different picture: an excessive approach that no longer seems to make a distinction. And the rule of law is being violated.”
The Association of Asylum Lawyers and Lawyers in the Netherlands also says that it is not against tackling nuisance causes, but that the measures taken by the ministry go too far.
The ministry denies that it has actively interfered with the work instructions of the Public Prosecution Service to take faster and tougher action against relatively minor offenses by asylum seekers. According to a spokesperson, discrimination has never been the goal.
2024-02-10 21:03:11
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