Top court wants to rule on third-country asylum seekers by the end of 2023

The Council of State is not yet certain when it will be able to issue a ruling on the protection of third-country nationals who also sought asylum in the Netherlands after Russia intensified its invasion of Ukraine. The top administrative court in the Netherlands could potentially rule on the issue before January.

“We hope, and I put it this way on purpose, that we will be able to make a decision before the end of the year, but that is certainly not a clear expectation. There is much to be seen and considered, and so I cannot make any promises. But we hope so,” the presiding judge said at the end of a hearing on Monday.

Third-country nationals are people who worked or studied in Ukraine as foreigners and held a temporary residence permit there. When Russia invaded the country last year, many of them fled to Europe. In the Netherlands and other European Union countries, they have received the same temporary protection as Ukrainian refugees. They were allowed to live, work and study in the Netherlands, and were eligible for benefits.

The Dutch Cabinet wants to put an end to that. Lower court rulings have contradicted each other as to whether this is allowed. That eventually pushed the issue up to the Council of State, which held its initial hearing on Monday.

According to the country’s attorney, the Netherlands has the freedom to decide for itself when temporary protection ends. Moreover, it was never intended to allow the group to permanently remain in the Netherlands. “Given the duration of the conflict, a future perspective on Ukraine is becoming increasingly out of sight. It can then be expected that people will wait out the conflict in their own country and return to Ukraine from there,” the attorney for the Netherlands said.

The lawyers of the third-country nationals say that they do not want to stay in the Netherlands either. “What they aim for is to get protection in the Netherlands. They have fled war, they have come to the Netherlands with the flow of Ukrainians, with their friends, acquaintances and sometimes partners. They want to stay here until they can return to Ukraine. They see that as the country they have a bond with and to which they want to return.”