Cabinet gives up proposed two-year "asylum decision freeze"

The Cabinet abandons its plan to introduce a two-year “asylum decision freeze”. Asylum Minister Marjolein Faber is sticking to her predecessor Eric van der Burg's proposal that the examination of an asylum application should take longer.

For years, the Immigration and Naturalization Service has not had enough staff to decide on an application within six months, as is actually intended. The IND can take more time because an application is very complicated, for example, but it cannot manage it at the moment. Van der Burg therefore wanted to extend the maximum deadlines to a maximum of 21 months. The international agreements that the Netherlands has made do not allow for more, he said.

Nevertheless, at the insistence of the PVV, the coalition parties announced that they would “suspend the processing of asylum applications for up to two years (‘asylum decision freeze’)”. This measure is to be included in a new asylum crisis law. But “the asylum decision freeze is characterized by the bill that deals with the extension of asylum decision periods, as far as I know, 21 months”, said Schoof, who was asked about this after Friday's Council of Ministers.

What Faber means by a “decision freeze”, however long it may last, remains unclear. When discussing the plans, Van der Burg warned the PVV that suspending the examination would also mean that unwelcome asylum seekers would not be rejected.

“Then you say to all the asylum seekers in Europe with few opportunities: if you come to the Netherlands, you know for sure that you cannot be deported from the Netherlands for at least two years, because we are not going to make any decisions," Van der Burg said during a parliamentary debate regarding the “asylum decision freeze” in June 2024, AD wrote.

Overall, this would only increase the pressure on the reception of asylum seekers.