Border controls not resulting in fewer asylum seekers: Court of Audit

The internal border controls that the Schoof I Cabinet implemented in December are not an effective means of reducing the number of asylum seekers, the Court of Audit said based on the first results. The controls can help combat illegal migration, but seeking asylum is not illegal migration, and the controls will therefore not help the now-caretaker government’s goals to reduce pressure on the asylum chain and housing.

“Internal border control is not an instrument against asylum seekers,” the Court of Audit said. “As soon as an asylum seeker applies for asylum at the border controls, they are no longer an irregular migrant.”

The only option Koninklijke Marechaussee officers have is to refer the asylum seeker to a registration center, like the one in Ter Apel. “From that moment on, that person is a regular migrant” with the right to await the decision on their asylum application in the Netherlands. The Court of Audit said it reminded the government of this several times.

The Court of Audit added that only a small proportion of asylum seekers enter the procedure via an internal border, around 400 of a total of 43,600 asylum seekers. That is 0.9 percent.

Internal border controls can be an effective tool in reducing illegal migration, the Court of Audit also said. The Court compared the results of the first five months of border checks to the results of random checks done by the Koninklijke Marechaussee before that. Marachaussee officers refused far more people entry during the border controls than during their random checks, 320 compared to 170. These are people who couldn’t identify themselves, didn’t have a visa, or couldn’t say what they intended to do in the Netherlands.

The Minister of Aylum and Migration said that the reintroduction of internal border controls would not “significantly affect” the other tasks of the Koninklijke Marechaussee, a policing force that works as part of the Dutch military and is responsible for border security, among other things. “Based on this research, the Court of Audit has no reason to doubt this,” the Court said.

However, the Court of Audit pointed out that the Koninklijke Marechaussee has been struggling with staff shortages for some time and that the policing service indicated that it couldn’t fully staff various subtasks.