The backlog of asylum packages within the Netherlands is sort of as top as right through the 2015 refugee disaster, in keeping with new knowledge.
Figures from Eurostat display that the Dutch immigration carrier has now not but spoke back to just about 30,000 asylum seekers.
A complete of 29,460 asylum packages to the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) are pending, Eurostat famous.
This is best 180 packages fewer than the backlog in 2015, even supposing the collection of new packages in 2022 is far much less.
Martijn van der Linden, a spokesperson for the Dutch Council for Refugees, mentioned they have been “very concerned” concerning the affect of the backlog on refugees and asylum seekers.
“On paper, the Netherlands has a lightning-fast, careful, and efficient asylum policy that is admired by other European countries, but due to the lack of structural funding, the IND had to reduce costs and dismiss staff shortly after the refugee crisis in 2015,” van der Linden instructed Euronews.
“Therefore, in recent years asylum seekers had to wait up to almost two years before their asylum procedure even starts, whereas it should be a few weeks.”
“Since 2018, we have warned the Dutch government that waiting times are too long and that action needs to be taken. Unfortunately, not much has changed.”
PM Rutte ‘ashamed’ of the location
The inflow of asylum seekers within the Netherlands has led to extraordinary motion from NGOs and humanitarian teams.
For the primary time ever, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) despatched a workforce of clinical staff to the Netherlands after a build-up of migrants on the Ter Apel asylum centre.
Around 700 asylum seekers have been residing in “increasingly inhumane and unacceptable,” drowsing outdoor the asylum centre for days whilst anticipating registration. A 3-month-old child died on the overcrowded facility.
The two-week challenge via MSF supplied safe haven and “basic healthcare” to loads of other folks.
“Patients came from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Somalia, Eritrea and West Africa. There were many people suffering from skin infections due to unhygienic living conditions, and neglected wounds that had been caused by walking for weeks on end,” MSF mentioned in a press unlock.
“Others were in need of mental healthcare for symptoms including anxiety, panic attacks, depression and psychosis – conditions exacerbated by the uncertainty of the situation in Ter Apel and the lack of information about what was going to happen to them.”
“We call on the Dutch government to ensure that people seeking asylum in the Netherlands have access to medical care and humane reception conditions.”
The scenario at Ter Apel has “significantly improved” and numbers outdoor the centre have diminished however complaint remains to be mounting.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has mentioned he was once “ashamed” of the location, whilst King Willem-Alexander additionally mentioned the topic right through his annual speech final week.
Human rights and migration officers voice considerations over double requirements
One of the explanations for the refugee lodging disaster is a national housing scarcity. Once asylum-seekers are granted refugee standing, many are not able to discover a position to are living and feature to stick within the refugee centres, that have been supposed best as brief properties for other folks anticipating selections on their asylum utility.
Officials in Amsterdam lately authorized a plan to briefly accommodate a minimum of 1,000 migrants on a moored cruise send for no less than six months.
A 2d cruise send docked in Amsterdam’s western harbour on Monday to obtain asylum seekers from October.
However, inside of Rutte’s ruling People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, a number of native politicians have referred to as at the executive to scrap a brand new asylum coverage that forces municipalities to just accept candidates.
Residents of the small jap the town of Albergen protested previous this 12 months towards plans to deal with as much as 300 migrants at an area lodge, arguing town is just too small to deal with loads of asylum seekers.
The Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner, Dunja Mijatović, mentioned the present disaster “warrants a reconsideration of a few extra basic and longer-term sides of the gadget for asylum reception within the Netherlands.”
Noting the challenge the Netherlands faces, Mijatović, however, said she was concerned by the double standards applied in the treatment of asylum applicants from Ukraine compared to other countries.
“I am concerned about the stark differences in the treatment accorded to Ukrainians and to those of other nationalities, and join the call of other … to prevent discriminatory treatment in access to reception and other services,” she mentioned.
In reaction, Dutch Migration Minister Eric van der Burg mentioned the federal government has already agreed on a bundle of measures and the cheap of €730 million to construct further emergency shelters and further housing for beneficiaries of world coverage.
But NGOs say extra “unorthodox” motion is had to finish the “vicious circle” for asylum seekers.
“The longer asylum seekers must wait for their procedure, the more reception places are needed,” van der Linden instructed Euronews.
“The IND’s backlog is reaching a new record while reception places and shelters are already full, hence creating a crisis on top of a crisis.”
“Recruiting, training, and onboarding IND staff takes time that we do not have. So, the backlog increases further, and you end up in a vicious circle.”
“We urge the Dutch Government to come up with unorthodox solutions and to implement a new funding system. Only then, the lives of refugees seeking protection in the Netherlands will be no longer on pause mode for an incredibly long time.”
