The Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND) is reaching its limits of feasibility and cannot keep up with the number of applications for asylum. The Immigration Service reports this in a report published Tuesday. The IND says it is unable to process the large number of applications on time. Also because the laws and regulations surrounding migration policy are becoming more complex, the service needs more time to assess applications.
In particular, the IND cannot cope with the increase in asylum cases; it took the service 40 weeks last year to decide on an average asylum application, where it used to be 20 weeks. Applications to study or work in the Netherlands, for example, are generally processed within the statutory period. The government expects more than 70,000 asylum seekers this year. “There is no unwillingness at the IND, but there is too little capacity to handle the increasing number of applications within the legal term,” writes director-general Rhodia Maas.
Last year, the IND received 48,000 asylum applications, much more than the service had expected. Of these, almost 24,000 asylum applications were assessed, while the IND is set up to handle 22,000 applications annually, according to the report. Maas expects that applicants will have to wait longer for a decision in 2023 and 2024, resulting in the service having to pay millions of euros in penalty payments. Asylum seekers in the Netherlands can enforce this in court if their asylum procedure takes longer than the statutory period.
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