International

In order to reduce waiting times and speed up asylum procedures the government must provide more resources for the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND), according to an SP motion which was adopted today by a parliamentary majority. Commenting on the issues which the motion seeks to address, SP Member of Parliament Jasper van Dijk said: “The procedures can take years, which is partly a result of a shortage of resources at the IND. As a result, many families with children are left in uncertainly for very lengthy periods.” More capacity would at the same time avoid the IND having to make penalty payments to asylum seekers who have had to wait too long for a ruling. On Tuesday it was revealed that the IND has had to pay a million euros in fines of this nature. ”It would of course be better if this money was spent on staffing,” said Van Dijk. “Then you'd avoid both the fines and under-capacity at the IND.“

The SP motion for a relaxation of the 'kinderpardon', under which children who have been in the country without documentation for longer than five years are eligible to apply for residency, was unfortunately rejected, however. Expressing disappointment at this, Van Dijk said: ‘We could have killed two birds with one stone today: a kinderpardon for around 400 children who have been in the Netherlands for five years or more, and faster procedures so that new cases of this kind can be avoided. Unfortunately the governing coalition was opposed to this, and the result will be that in the years to come we will continue to be confronted by heartrending cases.”