Dutch PM defends "serious idea" to send rejected asylum seekers to Uganda

A return hub for failed asylum seekers in Uganda “is a serious idea,” said Prime Minister Dick Schoof before the start of the EU summit with government leaders. According to Schoof, more Member States are considering ideas about centers outside the European Union where asylum seekers have to wait for their deportation. “But it really still requires a lot of elaboration. It won’t be arranged overnight.”

It is certainly not yet another wild idea from his Cabinet, Schoof said resolutely in response to questions from various media. “It is a serious idea, but of course, there are a lot of catches that need to be looked at carefully,” said Schoof.

The Prime Minister doesn’t think it necessary to first work out ideas before making them public. “You should always be able to bring out ideas. It fits in with the line that we also discuss with the European Member States whether those regional hubs will work.” The Dutch idea for a hub in Uganda “could be an example.”

Schoof has not yet received any responses from other member states. Before the start of the official summit with government leaders, the Prime Minister has preliminary consultations with countries including Italy and Denmark and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.

Schoof is curious about the Italian experience. This week, it opened a hub in Albania where asylum seekers who were rescued from boats in the Mediterranean Sea must await their asylum procedure. It took 3.5 years for Albania to take in the first asylum seekers on Italy’s behalf.

According to Schoof, the Dutch idea of a hub in Uganda is an example of an “innovative solution that colleagues are interested in in principle. These are ideas that tie in with the idea that you bring rejected asylum seekers back to the region, and then let them return from the hub in the region to their country of origin.”

Innovative solutions have been magic words in the EU lately. The Member States are looking for unorthodox measures to reduce the number of asylum seekers and to return rejected asylum seekers to their country of origin more quickly.

Schoof does not expect the government leaders to make concrete agreements on limiting migration on Thursday. He hopes that “we will make progress there” regarding the return of rejected asylum seekers.

Several experts were critical of the Cabinet’s idea to ship rejected asylum applicants to Uganda. The plan has no chance of success, said immigration researcher Carolus Grütters from the Centrum voor Migratierecht in Nijmegen.

Similar initiatives for reception abroad have not yielded any real results, and the Netherlands will not receive permission for the plan at the European level either, he said. Grütters expects the plan to die a quiet death.

“In my opinion, this is a loose cannon,” said the researcher. “We cannot take this seriously.” The chance that reception in Uganda will come to fruition is virtually “0.00 percent.”

Further, it would hardly address the issue in the Netherlands, as it would only concern a limited group of rejected asylum seekers, he noted. “In order to leave as a rejected asylum seeker, you also need papers and a country of origin that is prepared to take that person in. In many cases, that’s where it goes wrong because people do not have papers or because countries say, ‘I do not know nor want this person.’ So you will not solve that problem this way.”