Memorandum on immigration and asylum in the VVD-CDA Coalition Agreement of 30 September 2010

The present body of legislation, with the order declaring a person to be an undesirable alien, already focuses on criminal or trouble-making aliens. If, in addition to this body of legislation, unauthorised residence were also to be criminalised separately, persons who at present are preparing to depart and those who have only just arrived in the Netherlands and still have to submit an application for asylum would also be negatively affected.
Finally, other objections, such as doubts whether the police and judiciary have the capacity to prosecute illegal residents, the hampering of deportation as a consequence of criminal prosecution, the long-term negative consequences of any conviction for the illegal resident and the consequences for institutions, citizens and medical and pastoral personnel who provide assistance to illegal residents, argue against the desirability of this measure.