The cabinet will no longer share so-called official reports. These reports are taken into account when assessing asylum applications, among other things. The opposition is protesting.
Minister Caspar Veldkamp (Foreign Affairs) announced on Monday evening that the cabinet will “no longer actively share general and thematic official reports.”
This concerns, among other things, the official reports from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that outline the situation in a country. This is used, for example, to determine whether a country of origin is safe. The Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) then takes this into account when considering whether an asylum application is justified.
According to Veldkamp, there is no legal obligation to do so. Moreover, this was the agreement that PVV, VVD, NSC and BBB made when they formed a coalition.
Veldkamp and Minister Marjolein Faber (Asylum) decided at the beginning of May to no longer share the documents. Since then, the official reports on Yemen and Eritrea have also not been made public, says a spokesperson for Veldkamp.
Eyes Were Focused on Official Report About Syria
The opposition is protesting. In Parliament, there was great interest in an official report that should have appeared around this time; namely that about Syria.
Currently, asylum applications from Syrians are paused because the situation in the country has changed since the fall of the regime of Bashar Al Assad in December last year. Based on the new official report, it will be determined what will happen to the current and new asylum applications from Syrians.
The coalition parties had previously agreed that they want to send Syrians back to (safe parts of) their homeland, even if they have a residence permit. That is why all eyes were focused on this official report from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
GL-PvdA Wants Official Report About Syria to Be Public
Member of Parliament Kati Piri from GroenLinks-PvdA submitted a motion on Tuesday to make the official report about Syria public, because the content could have consequences for tens of thousands of Syrian refugees in the Netherlands.
Piri points out that it is not permitted under Dutch and European law to keep the motivation for a decision secret. Piri and also D66 expect that many will then go to court.
Parliament will probably vote on the motion on Tuesday. The chance that it will get a majority is small, because PVV, VVD, NSC and BBB have agreed to no longer share the documents.