IND had figures on family reunification before election, far lower than Yeşilgöz claimed

Figures of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND) from last summer, about a month after the fall of the Cabinet, showed that it is rare for asylum seekers to bring distant relatives to the Netherlands, also called "reunion on reunification." The false claim by VVD leader and outgoing Minister of Justice Dilan Yeşilgöz that this was common practice played an essential role in the election campaign and in the collapse of Mark Rutte's Cabinet IV, as ministers failed to reach an agreement on this issue.

The IND, however, did not share the figures until February this year because they "do not provide a complete picture," State Secretary Eric van der Burg said in response to a request for information from the Tweede Kamer. Incidentally, the figures from the incomplete memo from August largely correspond to the final figures, which the IND published in February. The memo with the incomplete figures "did not reach me as State Secretary for Justice and Security or the Minister for Justice and Security via the usual DigiJust channels," van der Burg emphasized in his letter.

This involves so-called family reunification, where immediate family members of a refugee who has been granted a residence permit may come to the Netherlands. But they can then submit an asylum application again. If approved, the subsequent applicant can also bring family members from their home country. In The Hague, this was referred to as "reunion after reunification after reunification" during the Tweede Kamer elections last fall, where the main issue was asylum. VVD leader Yeşilgöz said in the Volkskrant a few days before the election that it concerned "thousands of people - we don't know exactly how many."

However, the published figures from the immigration service showed that the numbers were much lower than the VVD minister claimed. For instance, in 2022, only 40 "family members of a family member of a recognized refugee" came to the Netherlands, and in 2023, it was just 10. The IND then published figures on the number of applications (approximately 880 between 2019 and 2023) and the number of applications granted (350 in that period).

Even then, part of the Tweede Kamer wanted clarification about the difference between the figures and Yeşilgöz's statements. GroenLinks-PvdA MP Kati Piri announced on X that she will request another debate on this.

In response, the IND explained that the figures could only be published months later as an internal audit was required. The department was checking whether the figures matched the corresponding signals. All of this "unfortunately took a lot of time," the IND said, "partly due to the complexity of the analyses and the limited capacity to do so."