EU says Dutch asylum opt-out won't happen soon; Timmermans pushes foreign student cuts

The European Commission doesn’t expect that the EU treaty on asylum will be amended quickly to give the Netherlands an opt-out, a spokesperson told ANP. Until that happens, the EU rules for asylum and migration “remain binding for the Netherlands.” The Netherlands has a “moral obligation” to take in people fleeing from war, violence, and oppression, GroenLinks-PvdA leader Frans Timmermans said on the first day of the budget debate. He suggested restricting labor migration and student migration to ensure that there is space for people seeking safety in the Netherlands.

Earlier on Wednesday, Asylum Minister Marjolien Faber officially informed the European Commission that the Netherlands wants an opt-out option for EU asylum policy. The Commission spokesperson confirmed receipt of the letter. “We do not expect the EU treaty to be amended quickly,” the spokesperson said.

The Netherlands must “always have room for people who knock on our door because they would otherwise be murdered or locked up,” Timmermans said in the parliamentary debate. He is willing to talk about asylum migration, “but if you want to talk about migration, you have to talk about the entire migration issue.” That must include the “much, much larger numbers who come here to work.” Especially because migrant workers often end up being exploited in “industries that we have to discipline,” Timmermans said, according to ANP.

The Cabinet could also look at limiting study migration before stopping people from seeking safety in the Netherlands, the left-wing politician said. He urged the Cabinet and coalition parties to “take a stand in word and deed against the dehumanization of refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants.” Timmermans: “We are talking about people.”

After an accusation from PVV leader Geert Wilders that GroenLinks-PvdA has been “blind to the greatest concerns of the Dutch, such as asylum and migration” for years, Timmermans responded: “We continue to see people as people. They are not postal packages that you can just dump across the border, as you want.”

Interim NSC leader Nicolien van Vroonhoven also said on Tuesday that labor migration and study migration are more urgent for her party. As far as the NSC is concerned, asylum migration comes “third in the row” of issues to tackle. The NSC also ruffled its coalition partners’ feathers last week by saying it would only support declaring an asylum crisis if the Council of State thinks it is a good idea.