Cçao: Plea for multilateralism

ARUBA – During the recent meeting of the United Nations about the implementation of measures against cross-border criminality and corruption, the minister of Justice Rudy Croes (MEP) gave detailed explanation on the reason why Aruba cannot work without the collaboration of other countries, no matter what the country does. 

... Croes indicated that the use of all sorts of drugs is strictly prohibited in Aruba.  He said that the island is the victim of the countries that produce drugs, like Colombia and the Netherlands.  “Because of the fact that our island is small and surrounded by water, we are extremely vulnerable for the import of drugs.  Because of this, we have not enough means to effectively keep the drugs producers in other countries off our island.”  Same counts for the combat against money laundering.  Despite the limited influence that Aruba may have on the drug dealings worldwide, Croes indicated that Aruba would do everything possible to combat this.  “Aruba is being used as the transfer location for the cocaine and heroine from South-America to the United States and Europe.  Same thing applies to XTC in the opposite direction.”  According to Croes, the Aruban government deals the criminals heavy stabs via a few laws and specific tracing policy, with the consequence that over 60 percent of the prison population consist of foreigners.  Half of the prisoners committed drug related crimes.  Even though the Coast Guard has intercepted more drugs lately, the minister has lashed out extremely critical on the operation of this organization.  Another point of concern is the increase of the number of illegal immigrants.