The ban comes into place today.
Today marks the first day of the implementation of a “burqa ban” across the Netherlands. The ban will see €150 fines introduced for anyone wearing face-covering clothing, including the burqa and niqaq – veils warn by some Muslim women.
Police have confirmed that they will treat calls relating to the law as low priority, and that the public should not expect police to respond to such a call within 30 minutes.
“That means the law is unworkable,” spokesman of the public transport sector Pedro Peters told the AD newspaper. “The police told us they will not attend incidents on a train, bus or metro within half an hour so that means we would be stuck. The service cannot be interrupted.”
“If a person wearing a burqa or a niqab is challenged trying to use a service, our staff will have no police backup to adjudicate on what they should do. It is not up to transport workers to impose the law and hand out fines.”
The Mayor of Amsterdam, Femke Halsema, had already come out against the ban, and officials of the city are not expected to enforce it in any way. It is expected that other major cities such as Rotterdam and Utrecht will take the same approach.
It is not confirmed how many women in the Netherlands actually wear a full-face veil, though Politico estimates the figure at between 200-400.
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