Significantly fewer asylum applications were made in the first three quarters of 2025, compared to the same period last year. The Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) reported this on Monday based on figures from the Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND). Fewer Syrians are applying for asylum in the Netherlands, probably due to the fall of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
In the first nine months of 2025, 16,600 people applied for asylum in the Netherlands for the first time. That is a third less than in the same period last year.
In the third quarter there were 6,800 new asylum applications. Most applicants had Eritrean nationality (990 people), followed by Syrians (860).
Decline among Syrians after fall of Assad
The decrease is mainly because fewer Syrians are applying for asylum. In the first nine months of this year, 2,400 Syrians submitted a first asylum application, compared to 8,900 in the first nine months of 2024.
According to migration expert Carolus Grütters of the Center for Migration Law at Radboud University Nijmegen, there is also a similar decline elsewhere in Europe. “The Netherlands is simply moving along,” says Grütters. “Our share has been stable for years at around 3 to 3.5 percent of all first asylum applications made in Europe.”
Since the fall of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime at the end of 2024, the Dutch government has considered parts of Syria safer. According to outgoing minister David van Weel (Asylum, VVD), the situation in Syria is now so safe that he has tightened the admission policy.
According to Grütters, that reasoning is “intended for the public gallery” and “contrary to a statement of the Court of Justice of the EU,” he says. “A Member State cannot declare a country partially safe. This has no legal value as to whether someone is entitled to protection.”
He doubts that Dutch asylum policy has a direct influence on the number of asylum seekers. “The major movements are determined by international developments. Politicians like to pretend that they can turn the knobs, but in reality that effect is marginal.”
Young people flee from Eritrea
In the first nine months of 2025, 2,400 Eritreans applied for asylum for the first time – almost twice as many as last year. In recent years, Eritrea has declined into a totalitarian and militaristic state without political opposition to the incumbent regime. The country is now one of the poorest and most isolated countries in the world.
The authoritarian rule of President Isaias Afewerki keeps any form of opposition in check. The controversial national conscription is effectively unlimited, and anyone who avoids it loses access to basic services or legal rights.
Young people in particular are trying to flee the country. In 2024, according to the UN refugee agency UNHCR more than 683,000 Eritreans on the run worldwide. Germany hosts most of them, followed by Ethiopia, Sudan and Belgium. Of all Eritrean asylum requests in the Netherlands, the vast majority came from young people under the age of eighteen.
Family reunification is increasing
The number of follow-up travelers, family members of a status holder, also increased. In the first nine months there were 12,100 follow-up travelers, 40 percent more than a year earlier. In the third quarter of 2025, 4,600 follow-up travelers came to the Netherlands, the highest number since 2017. Two-thirds of them came from Syria (3,100 people).
According to Grütters, this is a lag effect of previous asylum applications. “The number of subsequent travelers always lags behind the first asylum applications,” he explains. “What we are seeing now is the family reunification of people who were granted asylum three years ago.”
Politically, there is always a lot of fuss about family reunification. The programs of some political parties, including JA21, BBB, SGP, PVV and VVD, state that the rules in this regard must be tightened. Currently, 59,000 refugees with residence papers are waiting to be reunited with their children or partner, is evident from IND figures.
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