THE HAGUE--The smuggling of drugs via St. Maarten worries The Hague, confirmed Dutch Minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Liesbeth Spies, who intends to bring up the functioning of justice and the combating of drug trafficking in the ministerial consultation next week.
The Minister made this promise to the Second Chamber's Permanent Committee for Kingdom Relations during a debate Thursday. She did so after Member of Parliament Eric Lucassen of the Party for Freedom PVV had expressed his concerns about the "extensive" drug smuggling via St. Maarten during the debate.
According to Lucassen, the United States is "very worried" about the role of St. Maarten in the drug smuggling route from South America to Europe and North America. Lucassen based his concerns on the recent crime view analysis (Criminaliteitsbeeld analyse) of St. Maarten by the Dutch National Police Service KLPD.
"Of the total world production of cocaine, about a third is smuggled via the Caribbean; yearly about 140,000 kilos. According to the US State Department, a part of that smuggling goes via St. Maarten's harbour," stated Lucassen. He said that with thousands of containers and yachts, and several million tourists, St. Maarten was a "true smuggling paradise."
The MP said that this was "logical," because the Customs Department on St. Maarten didn't function properly. "Even for Caribbean standards Customs is a joke." He asked Minister Spies about the capacity of the Customs Department and urged her to address St. Maarten's Government on this issue.
The Minister pointed out that the Dutch Caribbean Coast Guard was doing a good job in combating drug trafficking. "They are operating very effectively, but that doesn't mean that we are not concerned about the situation," she said.
Spies noted that border patrol was a responsibility of the individual countries of the Kingdom and that in St. Maarten the Royal Dutch Marechaussee was assisting the local Minister of Justice in this area.
Justice is one of the areas for which part of the plans of approach were drafted for St. Maarten when the island attained country status on October 10, 2010, because St. Maarten couldn't carry out this task completely on its own.
The Minister told the Second Chamber during the debate on Thursday that the execution of the plan of approach for justice was not progressing as it should. She didn't exclude that the several parts of the plans of approach for Curaçao and St. Maarten would be prolonged in June. She promised to keep Dutch Parliament informed on this.
Butterflies Italy Lisa Allardice Private equity Yorkshire Tottenham Hotspur
No comments:
Post a Comment