Migration: Netherlands stops payments for rejected asylum seekers

The new right-wing government in the Netherlands is stopping its payments for the accommodation of rejected asylum seekers. “From January 1, 2025, the state contribution for the accommodation of people who should have left the country long ago will be stopped,” said Asylum Minister Marjolein Faber.

She has consulted with the five major cities that offer emergency accommodation under the so-called bed-bath-bread scheme. “I am committed to return and not to subsidized accommodation,” said the minister, who belongs to the right-wing Party for Freedom (PVV) of the Dutch right-winger Geert Wilders.

Since 2019, rejected asylum seekers in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Eindhoven and Groningen have been provided with the bare necessities to prevent those affected from causing nuisance as homeless people. The cities are now free to continue caring for these refugees at their own expense. Amsterdam has already announced that it will continue to do so at least next year.

As the public broadcaster NOS reported, the Dutch government has so far spent around 30 million euros annually on accommodating rejected asylum seekers. This was seen as an interim step until the migrants return to their country of origin, leave for another country or are granted the right to stay in the Netherlands.

This week, FDP politician Joachim Stamp, among others, also called for social benefits to be cut for all those required to leave the country. “Everyone who is required to leave the country immediately should only receive a ticket for the flight home and a small start-up grant of a few hundred euros after arriving in the destination country,” the former NRW integration minister told the editorial network Germany.