NETHERLANDS: Netherlands leads group of countries calling for EU to speed up migrant returns ― Migration minister wants to install controversial warning signs in asylum centres and reduce length of residency permits for refugees ― Political agreement o…

• The Netherlands is one of two main proponents of a call by 17 European countries for the EU to speed up the return of irregular migrants to their countries of origin.
• Minister of Asylum and Migration Marjolein Faber reportedly wants to install warning signs that read “We are working on your return here” in asylum centres in the Netherlands and to reduce the duration of residency permits for refugees from five to two years.
• A political agreement has been reached on a law that is intended to ensure the distribution of people seeking asylum across all municipalities in the Netherlands.

The Netherlands is one of two main proponents of a call by 17 European countries for the EU to speed up the return of irregular migrants to their countries of origin. The so-called “non-paper”, which was led by Austria and the Netherlands and has been supported by 12 EU member states (MS) (Croatia, Czechia, Germany, Denmark, Greece, Finland, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Slovakia and Sweden) plus three Schengen Associated Countries (SACs) (Lichenstein, Norway and Switzerland), sets out the possible objectives of a legislative proposal to replace the ‘Directive on common standards and procedures in Member States for returning illegally staying third-country nationals’ (commonly known as the ‘Returns Directive’). The EU MS and SACs are calling for a “paradigm shift in the return process towards obligations and duties for the third-country national subject to a return decision” and are warning that people without the right to stay “must be held accountable”. They are also calling for a “new legal basis (…) in the form of a state-of-the-art-legal-framework” and for EU MS and SACs to be “empowered to carry out effective returns of illegally staying migrants in full respect of fundamental rights”. They seem to be envisaging a reduced role for the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) as they state that the new legislative framework “should render extensive interpretation by the CJEU unnecessary”. An unnamed diplomat from one of the 17 countries listed in the non-paper said: “The key message that all agree on is a clear signal to the [European] Commission that we need a stricter EU returns system with clearer obligations for co-operation from the returnees and less interpretation by the European Court of Justice”. The issue of returns will be discussed during the meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Council that will take place on 10 October in Luxembourg. According to POLITICO, the European Council may also adopt conclusions in which it “invites the [European] Commission and the Council [of the EU] to swiftly put forward a new common approach on returns” when it meets on 17 October in Brussels.

Minister of Asylum and Migration Marjolein Faber reportedly wants to install warning signs that read “We are working on your return here” in asylum centres in the Netherlands. According to RTL, Faber believed that she had seen the sign in a detention centre in Denmark during a recent visit to the country. However, officials have denied the existence of the sign. “It only exists in her head,” they told the television network. According to Dutch News, Faber later admitted that the signs did not exist in Denmark but that she “wanted to press ahead with the idea anyway”. Unfortunately for the minister, the co-founder and leader of the Farmer-Citizen Movement (BBB), which is one of her Party for Freedom’s (PVV) coalition partners, has stated that she does not support the measure. “Why would you want to do that?” said Caroline van der Plas on 4 October, adding: “What you are effectively doing is saying ‘ha ha, you have to go back’”. Van der Plas also said that she would inform PVV leader Geert Wilders that she felt that Faber’s plan would amount to “bullying refugees”.

In addition to her controversial warning sign plan, Minister of Asylum and Migration Marjolein Faber has stated that she wants to reduce the duration of residency permits for refugees from five to two years. Speaking after her recent “fact-finding mission” to Denmark, which she reportedly described as a “source of inspiration”, she told the Telegraaf newspaper in late September that the situation for people seeking asylum in the Nordic country was “very basic” – something that she said she found “fine” – and that only short-term permits were issued there. “Our temporary residence permit is now five years but if it was up to me, it will be cut to two years,” she said. She also restated the coalition agreement pledge to end the system under which refugees are entitled to permanent residency permits after five years. “I want to get rid of permanent residency permits,” she added.

A political agreement has been reached on a law that is intended to ensure the distribution of people seeking asylum across all municipalities in the Netherlands. According to an explainer published by ECRE member organisation the Dutch Council for Refugees (DCR), the law, which would allow the government to designate suitable reception locations as a means of resolving the ongoing shortage of reception places, is necessary to replace the voluntary system that currently exists. It should “alleviate many of the municipalities’ concerns and make it possible to propose smaller-scale locations” the organisation wrote. It also foresees a system through which those municipalities that co-operate voluntarily would be rewarded by the government. The proposed law, commonly known as the “Distribution Law” (Spreidingswet), is proving controversial as the government, which only took office in July 2024, has previously committed to repealing it. It will now be sent to Council of State for advice and then both houses of parliament will vote on it. DCR has expressed concerns that municipalities will wait until the new law takes effect before they start offering reception places and it has called for an interim solution. “We need an interim solution because it will be a long time before refugees start to notice the effects of this law. We don’t have that time,” it wrote, adding: “The way in which thousands of people are cared for in (crisis) emergency shelters is harmful to their physical and mental health, so we desperately need better reception locations now”.

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