Philipsburg – On March 1, 2022, the Court of First Instance ruled in three administrative injunction
cases brought forward by three immigrants without a residence permit for either the Dutch side or the
French side. The Minister of Justice ordered their return to their native country, and placed them in
administrative detention to secure their removal.
The courts found that certain procedures and guidelines regarding the administrative detention were
not fully complied with by the Ministry of Justice. As a result, the court ordered the immediate
release of the three immigrants, pending the appeal process against their detention orders. The
release was done within hours of the judgement being legally received by the government to be
executed.
Important to note, is that whilst the immigrants were released, the court denied the request to suspend
the removal order of the immigrants. As such, although the three immigrants were released, they
must make arrangements to leave the island as the rulings of March 1 did not change that.
The Immigration and Border Protection Service (IBP) intends to improve its operations and
procedures to prevent situations like the ones that led to the three rulings of March 1. These cases
will be used as a learning experience to strengthen the operations of IBP. IBP will continue to
enforce the National Ordinance Admittance and Expulsion to the best of its abilities.