Hard-right Dutch government approves unprecedented package of measures to control migration

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The hard-right Dutch government announced unprecedented measures Friday aimed at reining in migration, including a re-introduction of border checks, making the Netherlands the latest European nation to take a hardline stance against migration as anti-foreigner sentiment surges throughout much of the continent.

Among the measures that will be swiftly sent to parliament for approval are a move to restrict family members who can join a person who has been granted asylum in the Netherlands, cutting the length of temporary visas and declaring parts of civil war-ravaged Syria safe so that authorities can reject asylum applications from migrants from those regions. Syrians form the largest national group among migrants arriving in the Netherlands.

The announcement comes a week after European Union leaders looked at ways to tackle migration and turn the 27-nation bloc into a Fortress Europe after years of striking a more welcoming tone. Germany, one of the Netherlands’ neighbors, also recently reintroduced some border checks and the new French government has also pledged a hardline approach to migration.

“We want to make the Netherlands as unattractive as possible,” said Asylum and Migration Minister Marjolein Faber, who is a member of nationalist, anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders’ party that dominates the government.

“Today is a beautiful day,” said Wilders. The powerful leader of his Party for Freedom hailed the measures as historic and “the toughest asylum policy ever.”

The Dutch Cabinet approved the package after Wilders and other party leaders held talks into the early hours to hammer out a compromise on how to enact the changes.

The government also will scrap a law that obliged municipalities to house migrants.

The association of Dutch municipalities said that the measures would “create chaos.” It said that “tasks should be fairly distributed among municipalities.”

Prime Minister Dick Schoof said the moves aim at “reducing the inflow, accelerating the outflow, returning those who are not lawfully staying and getting the asylum chain back in order and thus reducing the pressure on society.”

The Dutch Council for Refugees said in its reaction to the plans that leaked earlier this week that they would not solve the problems in the Netherlands.

“This ‘toughest-ever asylum policy’ is not a solution for anybody,” the council said in a statement and insisted that the problems in the Netherlands were caused by a slow asylum system and lack of accommodation for arrivals.

The four-party coalition formed after Wilders' election victory last year came to office in July on a pledge to control migration, but has been wrangling ever since over how to quickly implement changes.

Over the last 12 months, 51,000 people have applied for asylum in the Netherlands, a nation of 18 million, according to figures from the country's Immigration and Naturalization Service. Last month, there were 4,026 arrivals, fewer than the 4,683 in September last year.

Weeks of debate leading up to Friday's decision centered on whether to use crisis legislation that can be enacted without parliamentary approval or a fast-track legislation that requires lawmakers' approval.

After talks between Wilders and the New Social Contract party that campaigned at last year's election on pledges to improve governance after a string of scandals in recent years, the Cabinet agreed to seek parliamentary approval for the new measures.

Critics, including lawyers, opposition lawmakers and New Social Contract, questioned the legality of implementing crisis legislation to tackle long-standing problems in the migration system.

Friday's measures are not the first step taken by the Dutch coalition. In September, Faber wrote to European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson seeking an opt-out from EU migration rules.

Faber insisted that the government needed to “drastically reduce the volume of migration to the Netherlands, in order to continue to fulfill our constitutional duties — providing for public housing, healthcare and education.”

The shift to the right in the Netherlands echoes moves elsewhere in Europe where hard-right leaders such as Wilders ally Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán are also moving to drastically reduce the number of migrants.

Last month, the EU began the process of clawing back hundreds of millions of euros in funds meant to go to Hungary after its ant-migrant government refused to pay a huge fine for breaking the bloc’s asylum rules by persistently depriving migrants of their right to apply for asylum.