Council of State rules that heavily restricted border detention conditions were legal

The border detention of a foreigner who arrived at Schiphol from Casablanca last November was legal. This was the verdict of the Council of State (RvS), it was announced on Wednesday. The court in Amsterdam ruled differently on this case in December 2024.

An unusually high amount of asylum seekers arrived at Schiphol by plane last November and December. The staff at the Schiphol Detention Center (JCS) were not prepared for this. This led to asylum seekers being subject to more restrictions than is normally the case. They were locked for hours in their cell and were only allowed out for an hour.

For this reason, the court ruled that JCS did not meet the Reception Conditions Directive guidelines set by the European Union for specialized detention facilities. The RvS disagrees with this ruling. They pointed out that although the asylum seekers were subject to more restrictions, they "remained strictly separated from criminal detainees.”

The rules for the two differ, the RvS explained. “In addition, the part of the JCS which is used for border detention is specifically designed for the treatment of the asylum procedure and the support that asylum seekers need,” the RvS said.

This is why the RvS ruled that the court was wrong for ruling that the border detention was illegal. The Council of State states that it can only assess whether the JCS is a specialized detention facility. It does not judge whether the border detention was carried out well or badly in an individual case. "Asylum seekers can submit any complaints about it to the supervisory committee."

The Minister of Asylum and Migration had appealed the verdict by the court in Amsterdam.