Outgoing Minister of Asylum and Migration David van Weel (VVD) thinks it is legally feasible to send back asylum seekers who applied for asylum in Greece but traveled on to the Netherlands.
Normally, the country where a person first applies for asylum must process the asylum application, the Dublin agreements prescribe. But the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled in 2011 that EU countries cannot return asylum seekers to member states where migrants face a “real risk” of “inhuman or degrading treatment”, such as Greece.
Belgium was condemned at the time for sending an Afghan asylum seeker back to Greece. The man who fled the Taliban ended up in an overcrowded detention center and was forced to roam the streets after release. In 2018 announced the Belgian government announced that it would once again send back asylum seekers.
According to Van Weel, the Netherlands has helped to get Greek reception in order in recent years. Although he still expects asylum seekers to appeal against transfer to Greece, he is counting on winning in court.
Reports from humanitarian organizations show that asylum seekers in Greece still end up in dubious reception places. For example, authorities house refugees in “remote and isolated camps” where minimal assistance is allegedly offered, wrote Refugee Council in September 2024.
Last month, a majority of European migration ministers, including Van Weel, decided that it should be easier to reject and deport asylum seekers, since approximately 80 percent of rejected asylum seekers in the EU do not leave. Member States also promised to accommodate the most popular arrival countries such as Greece and Italy by either taking in 1,095 asylum seekers in 2026 or paying 20,000 euros per asylum seeker in compensation. According to The Telegraph The Netherlands opted for the compensation.
Also read
Council of State: irresponsible to send asylum seekers back to Belgium due to ‘inhuman or degrading treatment’
The journalistic principles of NRC