Ukrainian refugees who arrive in Netherlands by plane automatically detained for days

For several months, Ukrainian refugees who come to the Netherlands by plane have been detained for several days upon arrival due to a new procedure used by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND). Ukrainians who arrive by train or car are not taken into custody, NRC reports.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Ukrainians have been allowed to travel freely through Europe and have the right to shelter, care, and work. These conditions are laid down in the Temporary Protection Directive, which was recently extended until 4 March 2026.

Until recently, Ukrainians arriving in the Netherlands could immediately count on a bed in a shelter. Now, those arriving by plane are first placed in border detention for several days while the IND investigates whether they are entitled to reception in the Netherlands.

“The situation has changed,” an IND spokesperson told NRC. “While at the start of the war, most Ukrainians came directly from their country of origin, we now see more situations in which people travel from one country to another.” The IND says it doesn’t keep track of how many Ukrainian refugees have been refused entry after border detention.

The refugees’ organization Vluchtelingenwerk, which has an office at Schiphol, told the newspaper that there has been “one case” of a Ukrainian about whom there are still doubts. All other detained Ukrainians were able to enter the Netherlands after several days in jail. That shows that the procedure “serves no purpose,” Martijn van der Linden of Vluchtelingenwerk said. “While for the Ukrainians, it is a very intense experience.” He called it unclear why the IND decided to implement this policy.

According to the border procedure, all foreigners who report as asylum seekers at the airport are placed in detention. There, the IND screens them for things like war crimes or indications that they could pose a threat to national security.

“You can imagine that some Ukrainians are being investigated, for example, with a view to Russian disinformation,” Galina Cornelisse, a professor of Courts and Transnational Justice at the VU University Amsterdam, told NRC. “The border procedure is the appropriate instrument for this - provided there are indications for this in the individual case.” But “there is no reason” to detain everyone, she said.

Carolus Grütters, a research fellow at the Center for Migration Law at Radboud University in Nijmegen, told the newspaper that “there is no basis” for detaining every Ukrainian by default. “If you can prove you are Ukrainian, you automatically have access to the Netherlands,” he said.