Vast majority of NL residents in favor of taking in Afghan asylum seekers

The vast majority of Netherlands residents believe the country should take in asylum seekers from Afghanistan. About seven in ten want to take in asylum seekers, under conditions. Though four in ten are worried about the consequences for the safety of the Netherlands. Only 17 percent are completely against taking in asylum seekers from Afghanistan, Nieuwsuur reports based on a survey by Ipsos.

"The general tendency is that there is quite a lot of support for the principle that asylum seekers should be welcome," Ipsos researcher Sjoerd van Heck said. "But if you ask further, differences arise."

For example, 30 percent of respondents said the Netherlands should only take in Afghan asylum seekers who worked for the Dutch missions in the country, and their families. 28 percent also want to take in Afghans who are at risk because of their work for human rights protection or because they are politically active. Only 13 percent said the Netherlands should take in all Afghans who seek asylum here.

"If you look at social media and those demonstrations, you might think there is more resistance," Jaco Dagevos, professor of integration and migration and Erasmus University Rotterdam and researcher for the Social and Cultural Planning Office, said to Nieuws. He referred to protests outside asylum centers when the Netherlands was evacuating people from Afghanistan when it fell to the Taliban in August. "There is a broad middle group in the Netherlands that is concerned about integration and crime, but is sympathetic to 'real' refugees."