The new Dutch government, dominated by the far right, asked the European Union today for an exemption from migration obligations in order to fulfil its election promise to drastically reduce the number of immigrants in the Netherlands.
Dutch Migration Minister Marjolein Faber has informed the European Commission that the Netherlands intends to remain outside the regulations on accepting refugees.
"I have just informed the European Commission that I want the Netherlands to have a non-migration option in Europe," Faber wrote in a letter quoted by the US news agency AP.
The contents of the letter were shared on social media by the European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson.
"We must once again take responsibility for our own asylum policy," added Faber, who is a member of the Freedom Party of Geert Wilders, the leader of the far right in the Netherlands.
The government, which came to power in July, announced its 2025 action plan on Tuesday, which includes tougher policies to detain or expel migrants who do not meet the necessary conditions for asylum.
The announcement came just a day after party leaders publicly discussed the plans, highlighting divisions within the four-party coalition government.
Even before the plan was made public, the European Commission warned the Dutch government that its approach would not work.
“We have adopted legislation. It is adopted. In the European Union (EU), you cannot choose not to adopt legislation,” the EU executive’s spokesman, Eric Mamer, said on Friday.
The Dutch refugee agency COA warned earlier this week of a shortage of beds in the overcrowded asylum center in the small village of Ter Apel in the northeastern Netherlands.
The government is planning to declare an “asylum crisis” to pave the way for tougher measures, according to the AP.
The measures include reducing visas for family members of people granted asylum and making it easier and faster to deport immigrants who are not eligible for asylum.
The plan must first be reviewed by a political advisory panel, and at least one party in the governing quartet has said it will reject the emergency measures if they do not receive the panel’s approval.
In addition to the Freedom Party, the coalition includes the center-right People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, the centrist New Social Contract and the Farmers-Citizens Movement.
The executive is led by Dick Schoof, 67, a former head of the Dutch intelligence service.
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