Minister Van Weel takes steps towards stricter and more effective EU asylum policy

The Council has agreed on concrete measures to ensure more returns. This means more obligations for asylum seekers who have no right to stay, more options for return such as return hubs, and faster procedures.
 

Minister Van Weel of Asylum and Migration:
The Netherlands commitment to a stricter EU asylum policy has today led to concrete results on returns, better compliance with Dublin rules, and increased focus on partnerships. With these measures, we gain more control over who comes to the Netherlands and ensure that more people who are not allowed to stay actually return. Important steps towards a stricter and more effective asylum policy.

The Dublin rules must work again, so that asylum seekers go through the asylum procedure in the first European country where they arrive. With an agreement on the so-called solidarity mechanism, the main countries and the Commission also commit to proper functioning. This mechanism should ensure a better distribution of the pressure on inflow in EU member states. It has been possible to keep the Dutch contribution limited. Thus, no extra asylum seekers will come to the Netherlands under this mechanism. However, the Netherlands contributes financially 21.9 million euros. This amount can still be partly replaced by Dublin compensations. That means that asylum requests handled in the Netherlands that should actually have been handled by other EU member states count towards our contribution. The Netherlands is currently in talks with Greece about this.
 

The Netherlands has also advocated for more partnerships with third countries to be able to return people. An agreement was also reached on this today. Return hubs are included in the return regulation. In addition, the conditions of the concept of a safe third country have been adjusted to make it possible to return people earlier. For example, if someone has traveled through a safe country or the Netherlands has agreements with a country.

Finally, agreements have also been made about a list of safe countries. As a result, asylum applications from these safe countries are treated the same way throughout the EU. This should lead to faster processing of asylum requests and thus faster returns.