This week Cyprus will personally ask the Netherlands to take in some of the thousands of asylum seekers living on the island. The situation is untenable, according to the island's Interior Minister Constantinos Petrides. He no longer has confidence that there will be a European redistribution mechanism, and Cyprus is therefore approaching EU countries individually for aid, the Minister said to NOS.
refugee redistribution
Jan 28 '16 08:06
Prime Minister Mark Rutte and PvdA leader Diederik Samsom came up with a plan to force the leading group of EU countries into a solution for the refugee crisis. Starting this spring, they want to take all asylum seekers who arrive in Greece via Turkey and send them back on a returning ferry.
Sep 15 '15 14:51
D66 Euro Parliamentarian Sophie in t' Veld calls the deadlock in Europe over the redistribution and shelter of 160 thousand refugees "embarrassing". She is calling for another summit on the refugee crisis before the week is over.
Sep 15 '15 11:22
Nearly a third of Dutch residents believe that the Netherlands should close the borders for all forms of immigration, including workers from other European countries. Almost half of the Dutch population believe that the refugees will have a negative effect on the Dutch economy.
Sep 15 '15 09:59
State Secretary Klaas Dijkhoff denies reports that an agreement was reached regarding the redistribution of all 160 thousand refugees across European Union States.
Sep 14 '15 16:07
The Netherlands will not be closing its borders for the time being, but the marechaussee will be performing extra controls in the border regions to monitor whether more refugees are entering the country. The Marechaussee is a policing agency operating as a branch of the military.
Sep 14 '15 10:35
On Monday State Secretary Klaas Dijkhoff of Security and Justice has the difficult task of convincing the European Union to follow the Netherlands' plan for investing in asylum shelters near crisis areas in an effort to stop the inflow of refugees to Europe. He will attempt to do this during the European meeting in Brussels on the redistribution of 160 thousand asylum seekers.
Sep 10 '15 13:04
PVV leader Geert Wilders' anti-refugee, anti-Islam comments have caused many ruffled feathers in the refugee debate in the Tweede Kamer, lower house of parliament, on Thursday.
Sep 9 '15 10:55
The central agency for the reception of asylum seekers in the Netherlands, the COA, will need 10 thousand extra shelter spaces before the end of this year, in order to be able to deal with the ever increasing number of refugees fleeing to the country.
Sep 7 '15 08:36
The European Commission has set up a new distribution formula for the redistribution of 120 asylum seekers across the European Union countries. The Netherlands will have to take in 7,214 refugees, on top of the 2,047 refugees assigned to the country before the summer.
