New asylum seeker laws could cost the immigration service up to €60 million annually

The new asylum laws that are currently being developed are going to cost the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) 25 to 60 million euros extra annually, the Minister of Asylum and Migration, Marjolein Faber, estimated. The group of asylum seekers who will be given fewer rights under the new laws will likely appeal this, and that will result in extra work for the IND.

The idea of ​​the dual-status system is to divide asylum seekers into two groups: those fleeing from war and violence and the ones who are being prosecuted for their political beliefs, faith, or sexual orientation. The first group will be given less rights in the new situation. Faber expects three-quarters of these people to appeal the decision.

The IND will have to spend an estimated 11.7 to 27 million euros on staff costs to handle these appeal cases. The service will need 120 to 279 extra full-time jobs to fulfill this.

On top of the annual costs, the minister also calculated one-time payments for the IND because systems will have to be adapted.

The current Cabinet wants to reduce the budget for asylum. For this reason, the IND is said to be looking forward to the spring memorandum to see whether these new estimated costs "will make some adjustments" to the organization's financing, according to a spokesperson.

The IND also expects the new laws to "almost immediately increase the workload because we expect more procedures if one status is more favorable than the other. This will also influence how we have to justify decisions."

The asylum laws are still under assessment by the Council of State, after which the proposals must still be passed by both the Senate and the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament.

If it happens, the IND, together with the chain partners, hopes to have enough time to make adjustments and hire staff. The organization is already preparing changes for the European Asylum and Migration Pact, which will enter into force in June 2026.

"That already means a lot of changes and work," said the spokesperson. That is why the IND hopes that any new Dutch laws will be introduced at the same time as the European changes. This prevents multiple schemes from running at the same time.

Faber made this indicative calculation as a result of parliamentary questions from Kati Piri of GroenLinks-PvdA about the financial consequences of the two status systems and asylum emergency measures laws.