The Royal Netherlands Marechaussee (Koninklijke Marechaussee, KMar) arrested two travelers at Bonaire International Airport (BIA) on Wednesday, the 3rd of August, on suspicion of forging a travel document. In doing so, the two are also suspected of intentionally using a forged travel document at border control.

The two suspects, a 36-year-old Colombian man and a 40-year-old Colombian woman, intended to leave for Colombia. When the foreigners presented their passports to the employees of Royal Netherlands Marechaussee the departure control, examination of the documents revealed that an officially affixed sticker had been removed from both passports.

Further investigation revealed that the two suspects had entered the island in November 2021. In doing so, the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee imposed a ‘conditional admission’ (toelating onder voorwaarde, TOV) at that time. According to the Wet Toelating en Uitzetting BES (Admittance and Deportation Act, abbreviated as WTU-BES), the KMar can impose a TOV in order to better ensure that foreign nationals do not evade the supervision of foreign nationals. A TOV may mean that a foreign national must report to the Dutch Caribbean Police Force (Korps Politie Caribisch Nederland, KPCN) for domestic alien control during their stay in the Caribbean Netherlands, or may limit a foreign national to stay for a maximum number of days to prevent them from ending up staying under illegal circumstances. When imposing a TOV, the KMar affixes a sticker to the person’s passport. In the case of these two suspects, the corresponding TOV sticker appeared to have been removed from both passports.

Altering or deleting officially affixed information in a travel document is a crime punishable by possible imprisonment. The deliberate offering of a false or falsified travel document is also punishable. The Royal Netherlands Marechaussee is currently conducting an investigation into both cases. The two suspects remain on remand in the Netherlands Caribbean Correctional Institution (Justitiële Inrichting Caribisch Nederland, JICN).

KPCN