PM Schoof, PVV and NSC to meet again on Monday on emergency asylum law

Prime Minister Dick Schoof will meet again on Monday evening with PVV leader Geert Wilders and interim NSC party leader Nicolien van Vroonhoven to discuss the emergency asylum law of Minister Marjolein Faber, insiders report. The Prime Minister and the two party leaders met on Friday afternoon in the hope of overcoming the deadlock in the coalition regarding asylum measures. The talks are said to have taken place in good spirits. The coalition parties have until next Friday at the latest to reach an agreement.

The Cabinet plans to make a decision on the asylum emergency law and the associated “supporting motivation” by that day at the latest.

The issue is very sensitive within the coalition. Wilders has been claiming for weeks that, in his opinion, the strict asylum measures should be regulated by an emergency law, as agreed in the coalition program. The NSC, on the other hand, openly doubts whether it is constitutional to use emergency law for this. On Tuesday, Wilders appeared to offer an opening when he did not repeat his firm words on the emergency law to journalists and said that negotiations on it were continuing “in a good atmosphere”.

A spokesperson for Schoof said that talks were continuing and that there were still “various options” on the table, as the Prime Minister also said earlier this week. According to sources in The Hague, one of the alternatives being discussed is to regulate the strict asylum measures in an emergency law. This option is also preferred by a majority in the Senate and a large part of the opposition in the Tweede Kamer.

According to de Volkskrant, the Prime Minister will hold talks with the VVD and BBB if the negotiations with the PVV and the NSC go well. The two liberal parties are said to be “not going to sign at the crossroads”, the newspaper writes. Nevertheless, they do not want to rule out the successful completion of the emergency asylum law.

Interest groups demand that Minister Faber abandons emergency asylum law

Last week, a group of seven interest groups has called on Asylum Minister Marjolein Faber to abandon her intention to introduce an emergency asylum law. They say they are doing this “for people fleeing, people in the asylum process and people without papers, and with the support of tens of thousands of citizens”. Should the minister go ahead with her plans, “she will immediately face the courts”, the organizations write.

Minister Faber wants to enforce strict asylum rules via emergency legislation, which the organizations believe will violate human rights conventions and have serious consequences for refugees. “With its complete disregard for human rights and the rule of law, this cabinet is plunging people on the run into great uncertainty,” said Malou Lintmeijer from Here to Support on behalf of the organizations. “If Minister Faber thinks she can brush aside democracy for her callous scapegoating policy, she will find us in her path.”

The summons, legally a last warning before going to court, was sent out last Friday by the organizations Here to Support, DeGoedeZaak, MiGreat, New Women Connectors, STIL Utrecht, SAWA Collective and Stichting Gast. Lawyer Christiaan Alberdingk Thijm, who supports the organizations, considers the move necessary and promising. "Necessary, because the repeal of the Refugee Act is life-threatening. Promising, because there is no crisis and politicians must do their work within the framework of the rule of law.”