The entire asylum chain in the Netherlands is under pressure: due to a shortage of housing, there is also a shortage of places to offer ‘new’ asylum seekers initial reception. On Thursday, NU.nl wrote about the increase in the number of asylum applications from unaccompanied minor asylum seekers and their reception. This led to many questions about this topic on our response platform NUjij. In this article we answer three of them.
1) Does the Dutch family reunification policy differ from that of other countries?
Out research of the IND that was published on Thursday shows that the Dutch reunification policy (having their parents and other family members come over) is one of the main reasons for unaccompanied teenagers to come here.
According to the IND, they often seem to have “the impression” that it is easier here to obtain residence status for themselves and their family. Is this the case?
First of all: the policy for family members in the Netherlands corresponds in many respects with, for example, Belgium, Germany, France, Finland and Sweden. But there are also differences, such as:
- In the Netherlands, an application for family reunification can be submitted by a so-called referent. This can be an organization that arranges the stay in the Netherlands, but it can also simply be the family member who is already staying here. In many other countries the following family member has to submit the family reunification application in the country of origin.
- In some European countries it is more difficult for certain groups of asylum seekers to submit an application for family reunification. This concerns people who have a so-called subsidiary protection status have been granted refugee status (see box). The Netherlands makes no distinction between these, but other countries do. In those countries, this group has fewer rights and as a result the right to family reunification is limited. Austria, Hungary and Norway, among others, do this.
What is subsidiary protection status?
- This is asylum for someone who is not legally a refugee, but who does need protection.
- There are three reasons for this: indiscriminate violence due to armed conflict, torture/ill-treatment or execution (such as the death penalty) in one’s own country.
- People who have committed serious crimes are not eligible.
2) Why are there differences in such rules between EU countries?
The asylum systems of the various European countries are based on the same guidelines. A directive lays down a specific goal, but EU countries are free to adopt the legislation themselves to achieve that goal. As a result, there are differences in asylum procedures and reception within the Member States.
According to the European Council, these differences are undesirable: asylum seekers are not treated in the same way everywhere in the EU, and the percentage of positive asylum decisions also differs. As a result, asylum seekers travel around Europe in search of the ‘best’ country.
To eliminate the differences, the European Commission wants to reform European migration and asylum policy. For example, certain directives have to be changed into regulations (rules that a Member State really has to abide by). But in order to arrive at a common policy, all countries must agree. So far this has not been successful and there is little chance that it will succeed in the short term.
3) Is the Netherlands an exception or are more of these young people also coming to other countries?
In 2021, more than 2,300 unaccompanied minors came to the Netherlands for asylum. This is 8.6 percent of all applications from this group in the EU. This share has been increasing in recent years and has also been above the average European level for years.
If you look at absolute numbers, the Netherlands was in fifth place last year among all EU countries. More asylum applications were only submitted in Austria, Germany, Belgium and Bulgaria.
The Netherlands especially attracts many teenagers from Eritrea, Syria, Somalia and Iraq. Afghan teenagers make up the largest group within the EU and Norway, but few of them come to the Netherlands.
Of the more than 2,300 applications in the Netherlands, 69 percent have been granted so far. The IND has seen an increase for years in the number of unaccompanied minors who are granted residence status: in 2017 this number was 50 percent.
This is partly because more Syrian teenagers are coming to the Netherlands. They generally have a good chance of obtaining a residence permit. Because more and more unaccompanied minors are granted a residence permit, there are also more requests for family reunification. About 80 percent of young people make one or more requests for family reunification.
