THE HAGUE--Minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Raymond Knops on Tuesday confirmed that Dutch Defence provided assistance at the prison late October, early November this year.
In his answers to written questions submitted by Member of the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament Chris van Dam of the Christian Democratic Party CDA, Knops explained that late October the inmates refused to return to their cells, which resulted in a request, via St. Maarten Governor Eugene Holiday, for military assistance to the Minister of Defence.
The assistance involved the deployment of a special surveillance unit and a security unit of the Royal Dutch Marine Corps to guard and secure the outer rim of the prison, in combination with a search of the prison cells to support the St. Maarten Police Force.
The initial deployment of the Dutch Marines took place from October 26 to November 2, and was once extended by one week to November 9. Inmates were on strike from October until early December.
The Minister shared the concerns of Member of Parliament (MP) Van Dam. “The penitentiary system in St. Maarten remains a source of concern,” stated Knops, who added that the situation was constantly monitored, also whether the St. Maarten government kept to the earlier agreement to implement a series of improvement measures at the prison.
“Every two weeks, together with St. Maarten, we look at the progress of the agreed upon improvement measures. Based on that, I unfortunately have to conclude that the progress is still taking too long,” stated Knops.
However, there are several positive developments. The second wing of the Miss Lalie Centre for youth delinquents has been completed. Also, since this summer, new personnel is being trained – for the prison – who will finish their education shortly. Furthermore, the last bits of work are being done to the installing of new outside fencing and a new entrance gate.
“It is important that St. Maarten keeps working on concluding the agreed upon improvement measures,” stated Knops, who added that Dutch Minister for Legal protection Sander Dekker reminded the St. Maarten government of this per letter dated November 5, 2019. This message was repeated during a video-conference call with St. Maarten’s interim government on November 25.
The issue of St. Maarten’s law enforcement system also came up during a general debate of the Second Chamber’s Permanent Committee for Kingdom Relations with Minister Knops last week Thursday. At that meeting too, the Minister said that things were progressing too slow.
MP Van Dam during Thursday’s debate expressed his concerns about the rule of law in St. Maarten. He mentioned the worrisome reports by the St. Maarten Progress Committee and the Law Enforcement Council about the prison. He warned of the danger of letting criminals walk the streets because there is no space at prison to lock them up.
“Your concerns are my concerns,” said Knops, who noted that a number of areas in St. Maarten’s law enforcement system are under pressure, also in terms of a backlog in maintenance of buildings.
The Minister said that since attaining country status in 2010, St. Maarten structurally has reserved too little money in its budgets for justice. He said that the Dutch government has repeatedly pressed on the St. Maarten government to reserve more funds for the law enforcement system.
