Asylum reception

Jul 07, 2023 at 5:16 PMUpdate: 16 minutes ago

The coalition parties started around 5 p.m. with the last attempt for the time being to reach a migration deal. If there is no agreement tonight, a cabinet fall cannot be ruled out.

This week, the VVD group put full pressure on the asylum negotiations. The party demanded that a package of measures would be available this Friday that would ultimately reduce the number of asylum seekers coming to the Netherlands.

The party probably set the deadline in view of the summer recess. After today, parliament is off until September. Due to the hard deadline, the coalition parties have been negotiating the migration package at the highest level for three days.

The negotiations revolve around an initiative in which refugees are divided into different groups and are therefore given different rights. The CDA and the VVD want, among other things, that certain groups of refugees are less likely to be granted the right to family reunification.

According to the ChristenUnie and D66, this goes much too far. Moreover, those two parties do not believe that the restriction will hold up in court.

The approach was also in effect earlier this century. Then it led to implementation problems at the Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND).

Quarrel over potential vote has been settled

On Wednesday evening, Prime Minister Mark Rutte threatened to submit a package of measures to the Council of Ministers for a vote. This led to anger among the other parties. According to insiders, Rutte made an apology for this on Thursday evening, which would have improved the atmosphere.

CDA leader Wopke Hoekstra hopes that the parties can come to an agreement. “But I don’t know if that will work,” he said. According to VVD minister Dilan Yesilgöz (Justice and Security), the atmosphere is “always good”. She hopes “we can come up with a solution together”.

D66 leader Sigrid Kaag first wants to discuss the new variant. “The stakes are to get out,” she said. CDA minister Hugo de Jonge (Public Housing) hopes to “take a step” on Friday evening. But he does not know whether the cabinet will come out of it.

It is unclear when talks will end

In the night from Thursday to Friday, State Secretary Eric van der Burg (Asylum) came up with a proposal to break the impasse. He worked on that on Friday. During the new consultations, the parties will consider his proposal.

In principle, the consultation lasts until 9 p.m. But in recent days, negotiations have been dragging on. As a result, it is not yet clear when the talks will be completed and when clarity will come from The Hague.

2023-07-07 15:16:25
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