Officials doubted substantiation for PVV Minister's asylum emergency

Officials at the then Ministry of Asylum and Migration did not believe the “substantiation” they had to write to invoke a state of emergency law for strict asylum measures. The substantiation was “insufficient,” they warned Asylum Minister Marjolein Faber (PVV).

Faber wanted to suspend certain parts of the Aliens Act by using a crisis provision in that act. According to the law, this requires “extraordinary circumstances.” But if an emergency is declared, the Cabinet can take measures without the parliament and the Senate’s approval. These institutions would only be able to express their opinion retrospectively.

During the Schoof I Cabinet, many doubts were raised as to whether this emergency route could be used, including by the coalition party NSC. That party insisted on a “substantiation” to explain why emergency law was permissible.

At Faber’s request, officials cited all kinds of consequences of migration that would justify a state emergency law, ranging from public housing and education to security. “The increased influx of asylum seekers exacerbates existing shortages and puts further pressure on facilities that are currently scarce,” the substantiation stated. Healthcare costs for asylum seekers, prison staff shortages, and costs of asylum reception were also mentioned.

But these circumstances have been ongoing for some time and have various causes, the civil servants wrote. They told the Minister that there is no “clearly numerically substantiated causal link” between the number of asylum seekers and pressure on facilities. Moreover, the civil servants doubted whether Faber’s emergency measures would actually resolve the problems she foresaw.

That there are urgent problems in asylum reception and broader government shortages are “evident,” the officials said in an advisory report to Faber. However, better arguments would be needed to bypass the Senate and parliament.

After much wrangling, the then-coalition decided to abandon the asylum emergency law and incorporate the measures into “ordinary” laws that had to pass both Houses. The Senate voted on this last month. One of the two laws, the Asylum Emergency Measures Act, failed to pass following a U-turn by the PVV.

In November 2024, shortly after the discussion within the coalition, the ANP invoked the Open Government Act to have Faber's “supporting justification” published. By law, government organizations must make a decision on such a request within a month and a half. In this case, it took a year and a half. In June 2025, the judge imposed a penalty payment on the ministry, which amounted to 15,000 euros.