“It has my full attention”

Justice and Police Minister Jennifer van Dijk-Silos recently confirmed that shady practices have once again been detected at the Immigration Services Department of the Ministry of Justice and Police (Juspol). “It seems as if there is some kind of curse on that department,” said the minister who has been confronted with the irregularities at that department since she came into office in 2015. She announced that there would be another reorganization at the department which is tasked with handing out and extending residence permits, immigration requests and the naturalization process. “There are once again outrageous practices going on there which we will tackle radically.” The processing of requests is not going smoothly but according to the minister, this is caused by the reorganization that is going to take place soon. “It has my full attention,” said the minister in response to complaints about the delays at Immigration Services.

Shortly after the minister came into office, she stumbled upon a cartel at Immigration Services which was extorting mainly Chinese immigrants out of thousands of American dollars in exchange for a residence permit. In response to the complaints, the minister suspended nearly all of the employees from that department and launched an investigation. Several employees including the deputy director were reportedly given the boot. While investigators were digging deeper into the irregularities at Immigration Services a fire broke out in the building of Immigration Services located along the Lim A Postraat. Several important documents reportedly went up in flames. Minister Van Dijk-Silos suspected that arson had been committed in response to the investigation.