The Netherlands expects to receive even more asylum seekers next year than previously known. The more than 75,000 asylum reception places that the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) has always assumed are not enough. The implementing organization will need more than 77,000 thousand beds by the end of this year, according to a forecast published by the cabinet on Friday. In the coming six months, municipalities must also house the highest number of status holders since 2015, more than 27,000.
The prognosis shows that a total of 70,000 asylum seekers are expected to come to the Netherlands this year. The reason that the expectation for the total asylum influx has been adjusted upwards is partly that so-called ‘third-country nationals’ from Ukraine will be included in the asylum figures from September. These are people who lived in the besieged country on a temporary residence permit at the time of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Around 4,900 third-country nationals will be staying in municipal reception centers for Ukrainians until September. It is not clear how many of them will soon report to Ter Apel and will therefore be entitled to a place in the regular asylum reception.
The cabinet also expects more family members of refugees with a residence permit. According to the cabinet, this is due to the disappearance of the controversial family reunification measure, which was used to postpone the arrival of family members until the status holder in question had been assigned his own home. The highest administrative court at the Council of State finally brushed the measure off the table in February, because it is in conflict with all relevant laws and regulations regarding asylum at national and European level.
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Finally, the prognosis shows that more asylum seekers who had exhausted all legal remedies left the Netherlands than usual last year. According to the cabinet, there is “a slight increase”. This is attributed to the fact that so-called Dublin countries – European countries where an asylum seeker first entered – no longer ask for a vaccination certificate or the submission of a negative corona test before agreeing to take back an asylum seeker. Non-European countries often still ask for this type of proof, which means that returning to countries of origin remains difficult.
Asylum applications granted more often in the Netherlands
State Secretary Eric van der Burg (Asylum, VVD) acknowledges in a letter to the House of Representatives that the Dutch acceptance rate for asylum applications in the first half of last year by 85 percent was indeed higher than other European countries. According to him, this is because relatively more asylum seekers from unsafe countries such as Afghanistan, Syria and Yemen are applying for asylum in the Netherlands. He also notices that ‘a number of nationalities’ are viewed more positively than other Member States. According to him, this is due to the state of affairs at the IND, which has started to look more at categories of people instead of individual cases. He therefore wants to arrange for the Dutch implementation to work more within ‘European frameworks’.
Van der Burg also writes that he wants to do more to limit the arrival of asylum seekers, which must be arranged at European level. Van der Burg pins his hopes on the European Asylum and Migration Pact, which, as far as he is concerned, should be ready before next year’s European elections. In the short term, EU borders will be strengthened.
Finally, in the letter, the State Secretary seems to be complaining about the case law, which has shifted the burden of proof more to the Immigration and Naturalization Service “instead of the asylum seeker having to make a plausible case that he is entitled to asylum”.
The municipalities, which in practice have to provide many reception locations for asylum seekers, are ‘greatly concerned about the feasibility’ of receiving all asylum seekers in the course of the year. According to the Association of Dutch Municipalities, municipalities must all together organize 170,000 reception places this year. This also includes Ukrainian refugees, who do not have to go through the regular asylum procedure. The VNG notes that the prognosis does not contain any additional financial compensation for the municipalities. “We assume that this will still happen with the Spring Memorandum. Municipalities cannot be left behind.”
The Immigration and Naturalization Service predicts that asylum procedures will take even longer. “Accelerating cannot be done indefinitely,” says director-general Rhodia Maas. “In part of our work, we are adjusting our procedures, so that there is an answer for the applicant in the short term. But, as bad as that is for the people concerned, we also have to accept that applicants will have to wait a long time for the time being.”