Cabinet agrees on strict asylum rules amid legal questions; Will cost €115 million extra

Immigration and Asylum Minister Marjolein Faber has announced that she will spend an additional 115 million euros on the implementation of her new asylum laws, a package of strict measures which the Cabinet agreed to enact on Friday during the regular weekly Council of Ministers meeting. The National Ombudsman and the Children’s Ombudsman think that the plans are in conflict with children's rights and demonstrates evidence of improper governance. The ministers approved the new laws after Faber provided several “clarifications” in her explanatory notes.

According to a spokesperson for Faber, the money will be a combination of a one-off amount, and a structural amount to be spent annually. The precise nature of the distribution remains unclear.

The analysis from the highest administrative court in the country, the Council of State, had criticized the PVV minister’s plans and advised her not to send these to Parliament without additional changes. One of the issues that Faber has changed is the legal explanation. She claimed that the changes do not modify the contents of the laws, but she said earlier on Friday that she would not change anything about her law proposals, including the explanatory notes.

The so-called explanatory memorandum explains the reasoning behind legislation, and how it will be enforced. Courts can refer to this to understand the idea behind a law. The Council of State had advised Faber to clarify what the financial consequences are for implementing agencies, such as the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND). The advisory statement also asked the minister to substantiate how the measures will reduce the number of asylum seekers and reduce the pressure on the asylum chain.

In the law regarding the two status system, asylum seekers will be divided into two groups, with one getting more immediate rights than the other. The other law contains eight measures which are meant to reduce the number of asylum seekers entering the Netherlands.

The minister is altering the latter law at one point. This concerns the procedure of asylum seekers being notified that their application for asylum is about to be rejected. This is done to give the asylum seeker a chance to prepare an appeal against the decision.

Faber was already planning on scrapping this procedure, but this would have given asylum seekers the chance to plead their case to the IND unobstructed. This would be made possible after their application is rejected. Faber has now scrapped the option to appeal the decision this way. Asylum seekers can now only appeal their decision in court.

The National Ombudsman and Children’s Ombudsman wrote their criticism for the plans in an urgent letter. "Now that the government is ignoring the advice of knowledgeable people and organizations, we feel the need to warn of the disastrous consequences of these laws on our society," said National Ombudsman Reinier van Zutphen and Children's Ombudsman Margrite Kalverboer.

The ombudsmen warned for the consequences that the whole country will feel now that the two proposals are remaining unchanged. They fear that the time that it takes to handle a asylum application will increase further and this will lead to an increase in work pressure for the IND and the COA, the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers.

There are also significant concerns for the children who have already come to the Netherlands and the children whose parents are already here. “Their rights are worth nothing in these new laws. “Their development and future are being nipped in the bud,” said Kalverboer.

Van Zutphen is critical of the way that the government “is treating their most vulnerable citizens and own employees.” The National Ombudsman mentioned the Groningen earthquake scandal and the benefits affair as examples of incidents in which unfair treatment by the government affects more citizens than just the people involved. "Do not let the asylum measures become the next textbook example of maladministration."