The House of Representatives will vote on the two asylum laws on Thursday evening. The PVV amendment that makes being an illegal immigrant a punishable offense still raises doubts with NSC. The party has asked the caretaker cabinet questions about this.
The NSC faction met on Thursday morning to discuss the amendment that the House suddenly adopted on Tuesday. Because it also states that helping illegal immigrants should be punishable. That amendment must now be included in the asylum emergency measures law, one of the two asylum laws.
But it is still unclear what the precise consequences of the amendment are. And NSC is struggling with that. “We don’t want giving a bowl of soup to illegal immigrants to in itself be punishable,” says NSC member of parliament Diederik Boomsma. He sees unrest about this among civil society organizations as well.
NSC has therefore asked the caretaker cabinet what the consequences of the amendment are. Caretaker Minister David van Weel (Justice and Security) indicates that in fact helping illegal immigrants also becomes punishable, but also points to the limited capacity of, for example, the police and the Public Prosecution Service (OM).
It is therefore plausible that priorities will be set, Van Weel writes. He can “imagine that enforcing the provision of assistance by, for example, a church or the Salvation Army is not likely to be an issue soon.”
NSC must now reconsider. It is not yet clear when the faction will do so.
Vote moved to midnight
The House of Representatives is not expected to vote on the asylum laws until around midnight. That was initially supposed to happen at the beginning of the afternoon. The SP had requested a roll-call vote, for which all members of parliament must be summoned.
It remains to be seen whether the asylum laws will pass. There seems to be sufficient support for the law introducing a two-status system. But it depends on the support of NSC whether the asylum emergency measures law with the amendment of Tuesday is still adopted.
If the asylum laws pass the House of Representatives on Thursday evening, it is still uncertain whether there is also a majority in the Senate. The former coalition parties do not have a majority there. The CDA was mainly looked at for that majority, but CDA leader Henri Bontenbal announced on Wednesday that he would not vote in favor.