Dutch cabinet’s asylum plans will have little effect
The Dutch cabinet plans to adopt the strictest asylum policy the Netherlands has ever seen. In daily newspaper NRC, Peter Rodrigues (Emeritus Professor of Immigration Law) and Mark Klaassen (Associate Professor of Immigration law) comment on the government’s plans.
Dutch asylum law is largely determined by EU law, leaving only limited scope for national asylum policy. As a result, national measures are not enough to achieve the cabinet's goal of reducing the number of asylum seekers arriving in the Netherlands, says Professor Rodrigues.
He notes three proposed measures that are legally defensible:
- scrapping the ‘intention procedure’ (in Dutch: ‘voornemenprocedure’);
- scrapping the right to travel to the Netherlands for family reunification purposes for adult children;
- scrapping the permanent residence permit.
However, Professor Rodrigues argues that these kinds of measures will not have the intended effect of stopping asylum seekers from coming to the Netherlands. He adds: ‘There’s an overriding atmosphere of unfriendliness towards migrants.’
Dr Klaassen notes that while the proposed measures will make asylum seekers’ residence in the Netherlands ‘slightly more miserable’, in reality the measures will have little effect on the number of asylum seekers coming to the Netherlands.
More information
Read the NRC article here (in Dutch, €)
Photo: Patrick Hendry through Unsplash