Because of the corona measures, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND) will have more time to decide on an asylum application. The term has been extended from six to twelve months, writes State Secretary Ankie Broekers-Knol (Asylum and Migration) in a Friday letter to the House of Representatives.
The Secretary of State says that the handling of applications is “severely hindered” by the corona measures. As a result of the virus outbreak, the work of the IND largely came to a halt on 15 March.
The asylum procedure was started at the beginning of this month with the help of hearing. Broekers-Knol: “It is currently unclear when the situation will normalize again and to what extent the consequences of the coronavirus will continue to affect the subsequent period.”
The European Commission announced last month that Member States may extend the so-called statutory decision period by a maximum of nine months, because many get into trouble with the asylum applications due to the corona crisis.
Backlog in processing asylum applications
The IND has been dealing with a large backlog of applications for a long time. If an application is not processed within the statutory decision period, the applicant is entitled to financial compensation.
Earlier this year, it was estimated that a total of € 70 million in periodic penalty payments should be paid to waiting asylum seekers by 2020. The extension announced on Friday only applies to new and current asylum applications for which the decision period has not yet expired.
Because of the corona measures, new foreigners went to an emergency shelter in Zoutkamp in the past two months. These ninety people were transferred this week to Ter Apel and Budel, where they can submit their first asylum application. Since their departure, Zoutkamp no longer counts as an emergency shelter location.
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