Pending the appeal which will be discussed in January, the government has wanted family members of status holders not to be able to travel to the Netherlands for the time being. “In both cases, the Preliminary Judge finds that the interests of family members traveling in connection with family reunification outweigh the interests of the Secretary of State in not implementing the court rulings,” the ruling read on Thursday. In previous court rulings, it has been ruled that the government’s travel restriction in relation to family reunification goes against national and international treaties.
The court’s decision does not apply to all asylum seekers who apply for family reunification. These are specific cases that have been dealt with by the court. “In total there are more than 1,000 families waiting for reunification, but now they are waiting because of this law,” says political journalist Mats Akkerman.
The article continues below the video
Many criticisms of politics
“There has already been a lot of criticism of the policy from lawyers, but it is a great desire of the VVD to limit the influx of asylum seekers. It is also related to the distribution law. Not all municipalities want to welcome asylum seekers, but they have to. At that time, the VVD threatened to vote against that law. Rutte then mediated, but with the promise of limiting the influx if his party votes in favor of the law,’ explains Akkerman.
In late August, the cabinet decided to impose a travel restriction in relation to family reunification. This applies to family members of recognized refugees (status holders). The visa will be issued subject to approval no later than fifteen months from the presentation of the application for family reunification. If the status holder already has a home for his relatives traveling to the Netherlands, the visa will be issued sooner. The measure applies up to and including 2023 and, according to the cabinet, is needed to ease the pressure on overburdened asylum reception.