The European and Dutch return policy for asylum seekers who have exhausted all legal remedies has limited effect. That is the conclusion of the Scientific Research and Documentation Center (WODC) on Tuesday based on own research. The knowledge institute of the Ministry of Justice and Security has established that agreements under the European umbrella on the readmission of nationals who do not receive a residence permit are no more effective than agreements between individual countries.
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The researchers argue that EU member states “shouldn’t expect too much” from the effectiveness of return agreements. The WODC findings are a disappointment for the cabinet, which in the coalition agreement rather focus on ‘agreements with third countries’ on the return of asylum seekers who have exhausted all legal remedies. In addition, the coalition wants to work within the European Union on ‘migration partnerships’ with countries to allow their nationals to return.
Because the agreements between the Netherlands and countries such as Morocco on return agreements had limited effect, the cabinet hoped to be more decisive in a European context, but the WODC notes that EU-wide agreements ‘cannot be demonstrated’ to lead to a higher return. The researchers argue that the effectiveness of agreements depends on “personal relationships” in areas such as trade and security between individual countries.
Out previous investigation by the European Court of Auditors shows that the 27 EU Member States, together with Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, want to return some 500,000 asylum seekers to their country of origin every year. In Europe, only one in three asylum seekers who have exhausted all legal remedies actually left. According to the researchers, the return percentage for the Netherlands may be slightly higher, but there is still ‘a sizeable group’ who do not return to the country of origin.
Morocco has consistently refused to take back migrants from the Netherlands who have exhausted all legal remedies in recent years. A small proportion of these so-called ‘safe landers’ — migrants who have not fled from a war zone — regularly cause nuisance in the asylum seekers’ centers in a number of cities. That is why the cabinet has been working on diplomatic relations with Morocco in recent months; that country promises to allow nationals to return, in exchange for this, the Netherlands is more silent about matters such as human rights.