Asylum minister admits she has no legal basis to declare a crisis situation

"The Netherlands is in an asylum crisis," Asylum and Migration Minister Marjolein Faber said with conviction on Wednesday morning at the Catshuis, the prime minister's official residence. Members of Parliament from her far-right PVV party gushed over the seemingly declarative statement, but Faber added later in the day that she has no legal basis to declare a crisis situation. "But if I look at society, then we have a crisis," she said.

The temporary asylum crisis law announced in the new governing coalition agreement will not be enacted for the time being, as Faber's ministry has already announced. Officially, an asylum crisis has not actually been declared. This was a personal interpretation offered by the minister.

"I can declare that legally. Then I would have to take certain legal steps," she explained. Plans are being developed in her ministry to do this. She wants to bring propositions regarding the subject to the table near Prinsjesdag, the annual date in September when next year's budget proposal is published.

In The Hague's political landscape, the term "asylum crisis" has been used regularly since the summer of 2022 because the primary asylum seekers' registration center in Ter Apel was already overcrowded at that time. However, the term was given extra weight due to the coalition agreement from the PVV, VVD, NSC, and BBB.

The European Commission has also said before that the Dutch Cabinet cannot suddenly declare an "asylum crisis." Faber chose now to speak of an asylum crisis because of a recent report in the Telegraaf about partners, parents and children who subsequently travel to the Netherlands after asylum is granted.

The newspaper reported that last month, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND) had received more than 39,000 applications from those who wish to follow a family member into the Netherlands. It is still unclear how many of those will be approved.

"Everything is jam-packed," Faber responded. The minister did not want to say what she would do about the influx of asylum seekers. She said she will "certainly work on it," but "I am now bound by the laws and regulations."

With the asylum crisis law, new asylum applications would not be processed for the time being, the government parties wrote earlier in their outline agreement. Reception would be be "greatly reduced" if a crisis were declared, and rejected migrants would be forcibly deported more quickly. Domestic border control would also be tightened.

The Netherlands cannot simply declare this on its own, the European Commission warned last month. To do this, the government must demonstrate that it has not been able to solve the reception problems in any other way, said the Commission, which monitors the European laws and regulations the Netherlands is obliged to follow.