Only a third of all migrants who had to leave the Netherlands actually left

ANP

The detention center at Schiphol

NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 16:35

Rolinde Hoorntje

Editor Asylum Affairs

Rolinde Hoorntje

Editor Asylum Affairs

The Netherlands wants to limit the influx of asylum seekers into Europe by returning rejected asylum seekers more often. It is one of the spearheads on the list of input for the EU summit on migration that starts on Thursday.

But sending back people who are not allowed to stay in the Netherlands still proves difficult. This is shown by the annual figures of the Repatriation & Departure Service, which assists people who have to leave the Netherlands.

Of the 12,620 people who were registered with the service in 2022, 4300 demonstrably left in 2022. Some of them left voluntarily (2450), some were forced to leave (1850). It is not clear where another 4100 people went, they left ‘independently without supervision’. The rest is still in the Netherlands.

The graph below shows that fewer and fewer people are leaving the Netherlands:

NOS

Intake and Departure Figures 2022, DT&V

In practice, ‘departed independently without supervision’ often means that people no longer show up if they have a reporting obligation or can no longer be found at the place where they previously stayed. “They used to use the term ‘departure with unknown destination’,” says lawyer Mark Klaassen. He researched immigration detention. “They end up illegally or travel on to another country. Sometimes they try to apply for asylum in the Netherlands again after a while.”

The asylum application of Sidon Mosaab (35), a Sudanese Libyan, was also rejected. He had fled from Libya, where he worked for dictator Gaddafi, via Italy and France to the Netherlands.

Here he applied for asylum, but according to the so-called Dublin regulation he should have done so in France (or rather in Italy). Therefore, his application for asylum was rejected. “I received a letter that I had to leave the Netherlands within 28 days. I still lived in an asylum seekers’ center and I did not leave. Since then they have arrested me six times and forced me back to France from the detention center. But I just always took the train back .”

He can try again in seven months, because then the Dublin claim will lapse. “Until then I work black and I stay with friends here and there. I paid a smuggler a lot of money to come here and I have confidence in my application for asylum. I will stay here.”

The European Union has clear agreements about a fair distribution of asylum seekers across the continent. Yet in practice, the member states work against each other, as we explain in this video:

Why the discussion about migration in the EU continues

Over the past five years, fewer and fewer people have been deported, the figures show. This is also because there were fewer asylum applications in corona years, says the Ministry of Justice and Security. The higher number of asylum applications in 2022 does not immediately translate into higher deportation figures, which will take some time. Yet this is only part of the explanation of a long-running problem, which is playing out across Europe. But about 20 percent of the people who have to leave the continent actually leave, the European Court of Auditors calculated in 2021.

“The countries of origin do not always cooperate,” explains researcher Klaassen. “Sometimes they don’t feel like taking back people who have a criminal past, for example. And many people who send money back to relatives also contribute to the economy in the country.”

The Netherlands therefore wants to focus on partnerships with countries outside the EU, so that they are more cooperative in taking back residents.

Agreements with Morocco

But in practice, such a partnership does not guarantee more evictions. Since November last year, Moroccans can be forcibly returned to Morocco. Yet dozens of Moroccans were recently accidentally released from immigration detention before they could be deported, according to documents from the Ministry of Justice and Security.

Revijara Oosterhuis of the National Undocumented Support Center (LOS Foundation) says that Moroccans are currently the largest group in the detention center. Even if there is a deal, Morocco must give each individual permission to enter the country. Oosterhuis: “If the embassy says ‘no’, then there is no prospect of deportation and the person must be released immediately.”

Sometimes the person concerned does not want to show his Moroccan passport or birth certificate to prove that he is from Morocco. Sometimes the embassy is unable to collect enough information. And if the procedure takes too long to obtain the correct travel documents, the person must be released again, Oosterhuis explains.

The question is therefore what possibilities the Netherlands has to make the return policy more effective. Klaassen does not expect that Rutte will be able to adjust the rules for detention of aliens (quickly). The return policy is based on a European directive. “The partnerships with third countries, that could make a difference, although that may take some time. The government could also focus more on independent return, for example through more intensive guidance.”

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