Minister pledges to restore shelter budget cuts if asylum figures stabilize, increase

The government will allocate more money to assess and accommodate asylum seekers in the future if the stricter asylum policy does not deter them. The billions in cuts that the government already booked on the asylum budget will then be adjusted, assured Asylum Minister Marjolein Faber.

Faber faced fierce criticism over the cuts in 2027 on, among others, the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND). Experts from her Ministry had so far not expected a decrease in the number of asylum seekers in the coming years. Anyone who cuts the reception anyway is creating an asylum crisis, many opposition parties complained in the debate on Faber’s budget.

But the Minister brushed off those concerns. “The government will adjust the budgets if the forecasts give reason to do so,” she wrote to parliament on Wednesday. If the government decides on this in the spring, it will include the latest expectations. The expectations still assume that a slight growth in asylum seekers and that the decline that the government is counting on is extremely unlikely.

Faber continues to believe that the decline will occur due to the deterrent effect of her plans to tighten the asylum policy. “With this, we are sending a clear signal, and the Netherlands is no longer more attractive than other member states.”

Faber will debate her budget with parliament on Thursday. Parliamentarians from left to right were not optimistic about her policy during the first half of the debate. Even coalition parties were critical. The PVV Minister will try to convince the Tweede Kamer that, as far as she is concerned, her plans are realistic and sound.

The debate starts at 10:15 a.m.