27 November 2015
The updated Netherlands AIDA report details how the recast Asylum Procedures and Reception Conditions Directives have been implemented in the country.
New developments include the introduction of a formal border procedure to assess asylum applications at a centre in Schiphol airport, and sets out time limits for the detention of applicants. If claims are not processed within a maximum period of four weeks, people being detained at the border are to be granted access to the territory of the Netherlands, and their applications processed in the regular asylum procedure. The grounds of rejection of asylum claims at the border have been limited to cases where the Dublin Regulation is applicable, and cases which are inadmissible or manifestly unfounded.
The report, drafted by ECRE member Dutch Council for Refugees, suggests that systematic border detention, regardless of the four week time limit, is not in conformity with international and EU standards, particularly the obligation to assess alternatives to detention.
For further information:
- Asylum Information Database (AIDA), Country report: the Netherlands, November 2015
- Asylum Information Database (AIDA), AIDA Update The Netherlands: Introduction of an official border procedure does little to prevent systematic detention at the border, 24 November 2015
This article appeared in the ECRE Weekly Bulletin of 27 November 2015. You can subscribe to the Weekly Bulletin here.