Asylum distribution law will likely only be scrapped at the end of 2026

The Asylum Distribution Law will likely only be scrapped at the end of next year. The government wants to “preferably” withdraw the law that regulates the distribution of asylum seekers across the country at the end of the law’s first two-year cycle, the Cabinet said in an outline document that is available for consultation. The Netherlands received 2,762 applications for asylum during the first quarter of the year, a decrease of 66 percent, with asylum requests from Syrians nearly hitting a five-year low in March.

By completing the first cycle of the law before scrapping it, the Cabinet “does not detract from the expectations already created and the obligations entered into by both the government and fellow authorities,” the Cabinet said. Last week, the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) said that, thanks to the law, an additional 75,000 shelter spaces will be available for asylum seekers by July 1.

PVV leader Geert Wilders and Asylum Minister Marjolein Faber, also PVV, have been pushing to scrap the distribution law as soon as possible, but the plan has gained very little momentum. On Friday, Prime Minister Dick Schoof said that Faber herself had decided not to immediately submit a bill to the Cabinet to repeal, instead creating this “outline document” first.

The Asylum Distribution Act was created by the previous Cabinet in an attempt to relieve pressure on the structurally overcrowded asylum registration center in Ter Apel. The law allows the Cabinet to determine a fair share of asylum seekers each municipality must shelter, forcing unwilling municipalities to participate in this obligation set by international treaties.

The number of people seeking safety in the Netherlands has been falling for months, dropping 66 percent in the first quarter of 2025 compared to a year earlier. Out of 2,762 first-time applications for asylum last quarter, 940 came from people with Syrian nationality. In March, a total of 195 people from Syria applied for asylum in the Netherlands, the lowest total since June 2020, according to the Dutch immigration office IND. The total number of Syrian first-time asylum applicants includes 404 in January and 341 in February.

The decline may be due to the ousting of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December. “Apparently, the situation in Syria has changed to such an extent that far fewer people feel the need to leave their country,” said IND Director General Rhodia Maas.

In October 2015, more than 5,200 Syrians arrived in the Netherlands to apply for asylum. That was the peak in recent history.

Syrians still form the largest group of newcomers to the Netherlands. This is due to the subsequent arrival of family members related to an individual who was granted refugee status. They are allowed to join their relatives once the first asylum request is granted. Almost half of all such applications were filed by Syrians.