News from Amsterdam


To the front page

11/1 Jurists want to stay in Oudemanhuispoort

8/2 Mayor’s portrait

8/2 Websites for social cohesion

7/2 Spreading tourism proceeds with difficulty

7/2 GroenLinks on districts: Be a man

6/2 Zuideramstel opens new office on Sabbath

5/2 The truth about integration

4/2 Wilders has little support on Amsterdam

3/2 Elite involved in neighbourhood

2/2 Johnnie Walker avoids taxes in Amsterdam

1/2 Rotterdam to tinker with district councils as well

31/1 Wooden rowing boats to disappear from Amstel

31/1 ZeeburgTV launched

27/1 Privacy activists to mess up loyalty card system

27/1 A few were still coughing, but that was an act

27/1 Chrisis in de Baarsjes

26/1 Youth have positive view of districts

24/1 Action groups call for Carmel and Jaffa boycott

24/1 PvdA members dismiss plan for districts

23/1 KLM takes on crisis with new uniform

23/1 District office not squatted

21/1 Merge districts

20/1 Closing squat bar Vrankrijk not necessary

20/1 Cleaners welcome new Schiphol director

18/1 Palestine at the Jewish Historical Museum

18/1 What is the right size for a district?

17/1 PvdA Oost against fewer districts

16/1 Committee: 7 districts by 2010

15/1 Soldiers may attend Afghanistan debate after all

15/1 Bait bike leads to arrest

14/1 Youth for Christ to republish vacancies

13/1 Paintings of the Zuidas

13/1 New Youth for Christ contoversy

11/1 Social cohesion initiative raises eyebrows

10/1 Fewer districts in 2010

10/1 Zuidas: People feel that we are losers

9/1 Fun on the ice - but not for all

9/1 Supermarket coupon fraud thwarted

9/1 I Amsterdam must remain exclusive

8/1 Use term Apartheid in every discussion

8/1 No city kiosk in Amsterdam yet

7/1 Snow

7/1 Fatima Elatik to run Zeeburg

7/1 Municipal managers to return to shop floor

4/1 Police: take photo of strange people

3/1 Gaza protest criticises politicians

1/1 Thousands to protest against attacks on Gaza

1/1 Mustapha Laboui leaves district council

 

2008 Archive

2007 Archive

2006 Archive

2005 Archive

 

 

 

 

Illegals premium called into question

11 October 2006 – According to the new performance contract, the police will receive a bonus if it manages to arrest 11,883 undocumented residents next year. Tomorrow, the city council will question Mayor Job Cohen on the issue. Meanwhile, questions are being asked in The Hague, Hoorn, Zaanstad, Tilburg and Friesland as well.

(added: Leeuwarden, Groningen, Utrecht, Rotterdam, Drachten, Velsen)

AMSTERDAM
District council member Jelle Houtsma (Social-Democrat PvdA) first raised the alarm. The municipality should not be involved in a hunt after illegal residents and if necessary resort to civil disobedience, he told News from Amsterdam. Since then, questions have been asked by the Social-Liberal D66, the Socialist Party (SP) and Green Party GroenLinks. Judith Sargentini (GroenLinks) called the premium for hunting down illegals ‘inhumane’. PvdA party leader Manon van der Garde is concerned as well and will tomorrow ask the mayor for a clarification.
Sargentini and Van der Garde; Houtsma

The city council has passed a motion asking the mayor to have the premium abolished.

THE HAGUE
In The Hague, GroenLinks, The Hague City Party (HSP), PvdA, D66 and SP fear that the illegals premium “may lead to reprehensible practices, such as discrimination on the basis of appearance and hunting down illegals such as victims of traffic in women and asylum seekers who have run out of legal options, who with or without children, have nowhere to go”. They ask the city administration (PvdA, GroenLinks and conservative VVD) to change the contract or to make conditions.

HOORN
D66 has its doubts: “Arresting illegals can never be a goal in itself”, says council member and former alderman Arthur Helling in the Noordhollands Dagblad. “And it looks that way now”. The mayor is a fellow member of D66.

ZAANSTAD
Erik Schaap of the local Rosa party says in Noordhollands Dagblad: “It will result in innocent people ending up in jail. Think of the Chinese boy Hui who is detained as well [the detention of this eight-year old boy incited protests across the country – Ed]. Because many foreigners cannot leave the country. And illegal residence in itself is not punishable”. The party further fears that “the agreement in the contract to inspect foreigners’ residence papers will lead to selective surveillance, of which especially people with a coloured skin or foreign-sounding names will be the victim”, it appears from questions asked by the party.

TILBURG
D66 has asked questions. “Such performance contracts will be counter productive; the police will arrest mainly families with children because they are easier to detect than for example criminal illegals. And this can never be the intention”, says Peter van Gool, member of a council committee for D66 in Tilburg.
GroenLinks has also asked questions: “Do you agree that a witch hunt after illegals does not make a real contribution to the safety of citizens living in the region?”

FRIESLAND
PvdA provincial council member Wietze de Haan asks: “How about such performance contracts in the North? And specifically in Fryslân? People will know better here..... Won’t they.....”

Superintendent Berndsen has promised that there will be no witch hunt after undocumented foreigners. The mayors of Wûnseradiel, Smallingerland, Boarnsterhim, Dantumadeel Opsterland have serious objections to the performance agreements. Many Frisian mayors want the police not to implement the agreements, but Dales, responsible for the corps, said that the mayors have no authority over the police department that deals with migration issues (source: Fries Dagblad).

LEEUWARDEN
The SP is concerned that the police will focus more on ethnic minorities and wants to know if the agreement does not run counter to the city’s policy to support refugees who get into trouble as a result of failing government policies. The police should concentrate on doing its job: solve crimes and reduce criminality.

GRONINGEN
D66: “As an opposition party, we disagree with many aspects of this administration’s programme, but not with the strong position to do all we can as a municipality for asylum seekers who have run out of legal options, certainly if it regards families. D66 therefore finds it amazing that a performance contract for arresting people is being signed under the responsibility of this administration”.

The city council has passed a motion asking the mayor to have the premium abolished.


UTRECHT
GroenLinks has asked questions, the performance contract will be put on the agenda of the city council in November.

ROTTERDAM
In Rotterdam, Theo Cornelissen (SP) has raised the alarm. “All must be done to prevent a round-up being organised at the end of next year. Such a thing does not belong in a decent city”.

Party Leader Peter van Heemst (PvdA) told to News from Amsterdam that there is in the Rotterdam PvdA ‘no strong feeling of indignation’ about the issue. As long as the police operates in a ‘restrained’ way, there is no problem, Van Heemst says. Asked to explain the difference with the Amsterdam PvdA, which supported a motion against the performance agreements, Van Heemst prided himself in Rotterdam being a ‘more practical’ city.

DRACHTEN
The Interfaith Working Group for Regugees in Drachten in an open letter called on politicians to face the problems of asylum seekers who have no more legal options left. The group is very worried about the performance agreement (source: Fries Dagblad).

VELSEN
The city council has passed a motion against the illegals premium.

 

Want to receive News from Amsterdam? Click here

 

This is the old website. Please find new content here