At least six activists from the environmental organizations Greenpeace and Extinction Rebellion have been arrested during an ongoing action to occupy a runway used by private aircraft at Amsterdam-Schiphol International Airport.
«The Royal Military Police have just made a series of arrests at Schiphol-East related to unauthorized persons on airport grounds,» the police agency said in a statement posted on Twitter.
It has later reported that activists still remaining on the tarmac have been urged to leave the area under threat of arrest. «Climate activists at Schiphol. You are asked to leave the airside. If you do not comply with this, you risk arrest,» he has indicated.
Some 500 activists — according to Greenpeace — scaled the airport fences and sat under several private jets to prevent their take-off. Some chained themselves to the jets while others rode bicycles along the runway.
«We have grounded the mega-polluting private jets at Amsterdam-Schiphol Airport together with Extinction Rebellion Netherlands. Private jets are the most polluting form of travel! Schiphol must stop polluting. Stopping unnecessary private jets is the first step,» Greenpeace Netherlands posted on its Twitter account.
A Greenpeace spokesperson quoted by Dutch public television NOS has stated that «the goal is that today not a single private plane takes off and we are going to stay as long as possible.»
Extinction Rebellion has assured that they have managed to stop «all private flights» from Schiphol’s «VIP terminal». «A private jet is the most polluting form of travel. 5 to 14 times more polluting than a ‘normal’ plane. Today we block these shitty flights together with Extinction Rebellion Netherlands. Our demand? No more private jets and ultra-short flights,» added Greenpeace.
Greenpeace had announced an «action» for Saturday, to which Schiphol director Ruud Sondag on Friday called on environmentalists to be «clean».
