Junior minister Fred Teeven plans to increase the number of spot checks at the Dutch borders in an effort to stem the surge in refugee requests in the Netherlands.

The minister said he planned to increase the number of patrols by the border police from July 1. He made the comments during an emergency debate on his claims that 1,000 asylum seekers a week are now coming to the Netherlands.

However, the border teams cannot stop people claiming asylum in the Netherlands, Teeven said. But they can gather valuable information about the routes people are using to come the Netherlands. He suspects people smugglers are behind the current surge.

Most of the recent arrivals have not registered in another EU country which should have happened if they arrived, say, in Italy. Teeven said he had spoken to his Italian counterpart about this.

Under the so-called Dublin rules, asylum seekers are supposed to ask for asylum in the first EU country they arrive in.