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Netherlands: Police "recruit" asylum seekers

01 November 1994

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One of the issues the new Minister of Justice, Mrs Sorgdrager, will have to deal with is the growing concern of solicitors and refugee organizations over security service and police intelligence branches activities in debriefing and recruiting asylum seekers. Under the last government such concerns were brushed off, but refugee organisations now insist on clear guidelines and assurances for refugees that their case is not affected by refusing to supply intelligence. Surinamese asylum seekers almost as a matter of course are visited by the police seeking information on cocaine traffic. Algerians are extensively questioned on Hamas, and claim to have been put under pressure to cooperate with the BVD security service. Iranian refugees recently recounted how they were approached for recruitment as they arrived on the airport, in return for a promise of legal status. Anonymous Justice department functionaries have reported that BVD officers frequently drop by to pick up dossiers, and that the formal procedure of first obtaining the Minister's permission is simply ignored.

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