Netherlands wants to abandon EU migration rules

By Charlotte Van Campenhout

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – The right-wing Dutch government said on Wednesday it had asked the EU to allow it to waive migration rules so it could implement restrictions on unwanted arrivals.

“I just informed @EU_commission that I want the Netherlands to have an opt-out on migration in Europe. We need to decide on our own asylum policy again!” Migration Minister Marjolein Faber said on social media platform X.

The government, which has been in power since July under the leadership of Geert Wilders’ nationalist PVV party, intends to declare a nationwide asylum crisis, which would allow it to introduce controls without parliament’s consent.

Brussels is expected to oppose the move, given that EU member states, including the Netherlands, agreed on a new EU-wide deal on migration in December 2023.

“You cannot reject adopted legislation in the EU, that is the general principle,” EU spokesman Eric Mamer said last week, referring to the Dutch position.

The Netherlands received two first-time asylum applications per 1,000 inhabitants in 2023, according to EU data, which is in line with the bloc’s average. Ten member states had a higher rate.

But after years of budget cuts, the country’s only asylum registration centre is overwhelmed, sometimes forcing hundreds of people to sleep rough.

(Reporting by Charlotte Van Campenhout; editing by Andrew Cawthorne)