News item | 23-05-2025 | 17:00
The government is going to invest heavily to prevent irregular migration and to facilitate migrants without a right of residence. Minister Faber (asylum and migration) and Minister Klever (Foreign Trade and Development Aid) allocate tens of millions a year for this, rising to € 118 million in 2029. Focus areas are countries in North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. The ministers write that in a letter to the Lower House.
The ambitions of this cabinet to tackle irregular migration and promote return are great. The commitment is the closing of strategic partnerships with (migration) countries. In addition, there is cooperation to prevent human smuggling, to make return agreements, to strengthen border control and to work out new concepts, such as return hubs.
When entering into partnerships, the Netherlands pays attention to the interests of partner countries about, for example, trade, help, political support and deployment of Dutch expertise on food security, water management and health. For example, the government is working on an agenda of broad shared interests, including the Dutch migration interests.
In addition, the government will always make a careful assessment of promotion and protection of human rights in relation to migration policy and will keep an eye on whether the programs funded by the Netherlands are effective. In addition to its own commitment, the Netherlands is also a European driver of the closing of strategic partnerships and the government actively seeks cooperation with the European Commission or other Member States.
Minister Faber: “Tackling illegal migration is top priority for me. That is why we invest in those countries to prevent people from making the crossing to Europe. We all see that the costs for society are much higher if migrants are here. That is why I think this investment is completely justified.”
Minister Klever: “We are building a broad agenda of cooperation. The Netherlands has a lot of expertise on themes such as water, food security and health, both within the government and within the business community, and there is a great demand for in countries with which we want to work together to control migration.”