A controversial new law, passed by the Dutch Senate on Thursday with a 43 to 27 majority, will allow asylum seekers to be distributed among municipalities according to their wealth and population figures—similar to the way the “mandatory solidarity” measure under consideration by the EU would force member states to accept a certain number of migrants.
Municipalities may also volunteer to take in migrants (a commitment that could earn them €1,500- €5,000 per person).
The bill, which felled the Dutch government last July, has remained controversial because it hardly contains any measures to halt the high influx of asylum seekers.
As reported by RTL Nieuws, The Netherlands’ problem is twofold: while it is lacking the facilities to house asylum seekers, the number of asylum applications keeps climbing. In 2023, that number rose to around 50,000.
More alarmingly, about 1,000 people applied for asylum in the Netherlands last week, up from about 700 in the same week last year.
Unsurprisingly, given that the country is already suffering from an acute housing shortage, and that a third of all Dutch municipalities have not had a facility dedicated to housing asylum seekers in the past 12 years, the measure is sparking discontent.
Many local governments, such as those of Westland and Noordwijk, find the law impossible to implement since they already have trouble housing their own— primarily youth, seniors and migrant workers. A majority of the local Westland council, which would have to accept 700 people, has already expressed opposition to the new law.
“There is no popular support for this,”said Remmert Keizer, group leader of regional party GemeenteBelang Westland. “With this law, a democracy has been turned into a dictatorship,” adding that “we decide for ourselves what we do with our space” and were “going to do everything we can to stop this decision and not let anything be imposed on us, certainly not by a Senate that should have decided otherwise.” Westland, which has a population of about 111,000, last received asylum seekers in 2010.
The parties currently in talks for a new government coalition—the agrarian populist Farmer Citizen Movement (BBB), New Social Contract (NSC), People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), and Geert Wilders’ rightist populist Party for Freedom (PVV, the clear winner in last November’s elections)—tried to prevent the law from going to the Senate for approval, but failed in doing so.
Support for the bill by the center-right VVD group in the Senate may now jeopardize the formation of a coalition.
For Geert Wilders, who has been a vociferous critic of the bill as presented in the Senate, it is a source of irritation that the VVD still approved the law. “We of course saw it coming last week, so it is not a surprise, but it is very bad news,” he said to the press after another day of talks with heads of the potential coalition parties, including the VVD.
According to VVD party leader Dilan Yesilgöz, her group in the Senate had every right to vote in favor of the law. However, she continues to stress that agreements must first be made to limit the number of asylum seekers, and that for her, this is the core of the government formation talks on migration.
While the law goes into effect on February 1st, the measure that can force municipalities to take in migrants is still at least a year away.
Whether by that time additional measures can be agreed upon to curb immigration figures remains to be seen.
