Trouble looms over squatting ban, from official sources

Friday 04 June 2010

The public prosecution department will not change its policy towards squatters even though squatting is to be made illegal, the Volkskrant reports on Friday.

'We are not going to order evictions in order to leave property empty,' a spokesman for the national department was quoted as saying in the paper.

The senate, or upper house of parliament, passed the anti-squatting bill on Tuesday and it is set to come into effect by October.

Mayors

It is up to local police chiefs, mayors and public prosecution departments to determine how the ban on squatting will be dealt with.

The mayors of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht and The Hague said earlier they opposed the ban on squatting, which will particularly affect the big cities.

In Utrecht, the city council has already passed a motion to be 'reticent' in implementing the legislation.

Police

In Amsterdam, a public prosecution department spokesman said the city could have to be cautious with its use of police manpower because 'the riot police are very expensive'.

'We want new squats to be tackled immediately and that existing squats are dealt with according to a roster,' Liberal MP Brigitte van der Berg, one of the MPs behind the ban, said.

While admitting it is up to the public prosecution department to decide what action to take, she said: 'there need to be very strong arguments not to intervene'.

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