The Netherlands must now assess the asylum applications of more than 140,000 Ukrainians after a ruling by the EU’s top court, but many say they still have no idea what comes next.
The ruling targets a very Dutch bit of paperwork. When Ukrainians registered here, the Netherlands also asked each of them to file for asylum, and then left those files untouched for as long as their temporary protection lasted.
In a judgment last week, the Court of Justice of the European Union said the Netherlands can’t do that, NOS reports.
In the court’s view, temporary protection and an asylum claim are two different things, and having one is no reason to ignore the other.
Why were the applications on hold?
Ukrainians fall under the EU’s Temporary Protection Directive, an emergency scheme for when refugees arrive in very large numbers.
Instead of going through individual asylum procedures, people immediately get shelter, the right to work, healthcare and schooling for their children.
The EU keeps extending it, most recently until March 4, 2028. What happens after that is still an open question.
Mark Klaassen, who teaches immigration law at Leiden University, compares it to a pleasant waiting room. “But even a really comfortable waiting room is still a waiting room,” he told NOS.
So when will Ukrainians hear something?
Asylum minister Van den Brink wants the IND (the Dutch Immigration and Naturalisation Service) to handle new arrivals first, then its existing waiting list, and only then the Ukrainian files. That puts Ukrainians firmly at the back of the queue.
The queue is already long, with more than 54,000 people waiting for a decision in June, according to the IND. Klaassen calls the Ukrainian applications a “tidal wave” on top of that.
For now, daily life stays the same. In a letter to parliament on Wednesday, Van den Brink stressed that the ruling doesn’t affect how municipalities currently house Ukrainians.
What would asylum status change?
Years spent here on temporary protection don’t count towards residence, Klaassen explains. With asylum status, they would, and after five years someone could in theory become Dutch.
Jamal Statsenko, a Ukrainian living in the Netherlands, told NOS that temporary protection makes getting a mortgage very unlikely. Landlords get difficult about it too, on a rental market that’s tough enough already.
“I hope we finally get clarity about the future, and not yet another temporary extension,” he said.
Some would rather go back to Ukraine
Anna Bieliaieva of Vital’nya, a community for Ukrainian refugees in the Netherlands, has a son who’s spent half his life here and speaks Dutch. He keeps asking which school he’ll go to after groep 8, the last year of Dutch primary school.
“Do we have to go back, or are we still here? I can’t answer that,” she told NOS.
She’s also clear that plenty of Ukrainians would rather return. “We love Ukraine. Of course we’d have preferred never to leave.”
Have you ever had to plan your life around a temporary permit in the Netherlands? Tell us how you dealt with the uncertainty in the comments.
