In what politicians are calling the most significant change to the country’s asylum system in a quarter-century, the Dutch Senate voted on Tuesday to approve the EU’s Migration Pact implementation law.
The pact takes effect across Europe on June 12, which left the Eerste Kamer (the Senate, the upper house of the Dutch parliament) with little time to deliberate, reports Nu.nl.
At its core, it’s an attempt to bring the asylum rules of EU member states into closer alignment.
The goals are faster procedures, quicker removal of people whose applications are rejected, and fewer arrivals overall, according to the Rijksoverheid.
Who, what, where
While the fundamental rules apply equally to all EU countries, member states have room to add their own stricter elements on specific points.
The main changes include a mandatory border procedure at EU external borders under which people with little chance of being granted asylum can be detained. The Netherlands already runs this procedure at Schiphol.
Standardised identity checks, health screenings, and a unified fingerprint database also apply across the board.
For those whose applications are rejected, the pact wants to introduce return hubs. These are facilities in countries outside the EU where deportation can be processed.
Significantly, the pact also brings a solidarity mechanism into play. If one country faces an overwhelming influx, others must contribute by either accepting a share of asylum seekers or making a financial payment.
The Netherlands, whose asylum reception centres are notoriously overstretched, is choosing to pay rather than take in more people, reports Nu.nl.
How has the Netherlands gone further?
The Dutch government didn’t just copy and paste the European rules. In fact, it exceeded the European baseline.
Six of the nine measures from the Asielnoodmaatregelenwet (emergency asylum law) — a bill the Senate rejected earlier this year — have been embedded into this implementation.
Two notable measures among these are that indefinite permits are eliminated entirely and that the maximum length of a temporary permit drops from five years to three, reports Nu.nl.
The Netherlands also chose to apply the distinctions of the dual-status framework more strictly than Europe required.
Asylum seekers are divided into two groups: those fleeing war, and those fleeing personal risk.
In the Dutch interpretation, those in the first group (war refugees) have less scope to bring family members over than those seeking protection on personal grounds.
Will any of this actually work?
Minister for Asylum Bart van den Brink has already tempered expectations, warning explicitly against treating the Migration Pact as a Holy Grail, reports Nu.nl.
Last month’s European Commission report found most member states still aren’t ready for the June 12 start date.
The IND (Immigratie- en Naturalisatiedienst, the immigration service) is also battling a significant backlog of pending applications.
On top of that, VluchtelingenWerk (the Dutch Refugee Council) has questioned whether deportation processing outside EU borders can be carried out without violating people’s basic rights.
The judiciary, meanwhile, is bracing for a surge in court cases from asylum seekers looking to challenge the less favourable status assigned to them under the dual-status system, according to Nu.nl.
Do you think the EU Migration Pact will make a real difference to the asylum situation in the Netherlands? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
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