The new migration pact must ensure that the EU external borders are better monitored, that the inflow of migrants is limited and that asylum seekers are more fairly distributed over the Member States. Countries that do not want to take care of asylum seekers must then contribute financially to other countries that do.
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But it is precisely over that distribution now that tensions are created. Countries can designate themselves as ‘overloaded’ and indicate that they can temporarily take fewer asylum seekers. Van Weel explains that countries can use the label to get out of their obligations. “If everyone calls themselves an overloaded country, nobody pays,” says the minister in conversation with De Telegraaf. “Germany is not allowed in a different category than we fall,” Van Weel emphasizes.
The Netherlands does not want to pay for others
The Netherlands wants to prevent it from paying more than other countries or to take care of more asylum seekers. That is why this distribution is being negotiated. Instead of a country to stand ‘overloaded’, an alternative Van Weel is looked at. For example, the Netherlands could fall into a separate category with ‘specific problems’.
That would mean that our country, just like Germany and Belgium, has to do with special pressure on the shelter system. Such as the so-called ‘secondary migration’ (asylum seekers who were first in another EU country, but then coming to the Netherlands) and a large shortage of shelters. Such recognition can lead to the Netherlands getting a little fewer obligations within the Pact.
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Yet that status is not yet certain. Van Weel emphasizes that compliance with the so-called Dublin rules, which determine that asylum seekers must submit their application in the first EU country, is crucial for the success of the entire migration pact. “Those rules have been working badly for years,” says the minister. “That undermines the solidarity on which the pact was built. I will put pressure on that together with Germany and Belgium.” The deadline for the first plan is approaching, it must be ready on 15 October.
ECHR again under the microscope
In addition to the migration pact, the ministers in Munich also spoke about the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Many countries think that this treaty is too often in the way of conducting a stricter migration policy. “Nobody wants to sit in the judge’s chair, but for years of things do not run as we want,” says Van Weel. “The next step is that we are going to complement the treaty. The mild variant of that is that you have a conversation about the interpretation.”
That call is striking, because the Netherlands is traditionally careful with criticism of the ECHR. Prime Minister Dick Schoof Schooofed earlier this year to sign a letter in which countries such as Italy and Denmark called for more freedom to turn off criminal aliens faster. In the meantime, Schoof has signed another statement in which it is recognized to make agreements to modernize the treaty.
According to Van Weel, the situation is now different. “That earlier letter seemed to tend to judgments that judges made,” he says. “We have to see what we want to achieve without judging judges.”