Brake on family reunification and Defense aid to stem the asylum crisis

The waiting time for family members who have remained in the country is therefore a maximum of 15 months, specifies the responsible secretary of state. Eventually, he expects a few hundred fewer people per week.

These are just some of the measures the government intends to take to stem the asylum crisis. The system is currently at a standstill as all asylum seeker centers are full and a large number of asylum seekers are still arriving daily at the Ter Apel application centre.

People have been forced to sleep outside for weeks because they cannot get to asylum centers from there. And these centers are full again because there are no homes for status holders, refugees who have already been told they can stay. Housing associations must now keep twelve percent of their housing supply available for refugees instead of eight.

Defense Aid

The Ministry of Defense is providing a location to ensure that people no longer have to sleep outside. In addition, the Defense will help transport people from Ter Apel to other places.

Maximum waiting time

There will be no new law, but the government will use the maximum waiting period for family reunification. Applications are being processed, but obtaining people is temporarily postponed. For example, the cabinet wants to get rid of the arrears first “and put things in order”.

“People are only allowed to bring their family members when they have a house or flexible accommodation,” State Secretary Van der Burg said. “It will last until December 31, 2023, we will assess in July.”

The firm also wants to temporarily stop accepting people authorized to come to Europe under the deal with Turkey. According to Van der Burg, the Netherlands has resettled a “substantial number of people” over the years, relatively even more than any other European country. That’s about a thousand people a year. “But now that we have people sleeping on the grass in Ter Apel, or in gyms, that’s no longer possible.”

“Not New Zealand or England”

Van der Burg calls him “in the current situation he is not responsible” for letting people come.

However, he stresses that there will be no complete shutdown of asylum. “We are not New Zealand or England.”