And although the decision was made yesterday not to apply the family reunification provision to the new applications, according to political journalist Leendert Beekman the torment is far from over. “It’s become a really painful problem,” he says. “The provision for family reunification is part of the asylum agreement to resolve the reception crisis in the short term”.
In short, the restriction means that family members of beneficiaries will have to wait an extra six months before they can come to the Netherlands. “This still applies to old cases, if the application has already been filed,” says Beekman.
Desire
According to Beekman, the measure was a wish of the VVD and the CDA to accept the distribution law. “There have been big objections to the family reunification rule,” he says. ‘Including official advice, the legal world and science, but it was still pushed through. And now it’s in danger.”
Today’s hearing is being handled by the administrative law department of the State Council, which is examining three judgments from the courts of Amsterdam, Middelburg and Arnhem respectively. “And Secretary of State Van der Burg wants to know definitively whether the substantive part of the family reunification rule can be maintained,” Beekman continues. “Otherwise, the whole measure will be dropped and, if possible, the measure will be restored in all its glory and we will see it again.”
Crisis
However, if the judge decides to permanently overturn the measure, Beekman thinks a crisis in the coalition will follow. “Then we will have problems in the coalition,” he says. ‘They’ve talked a lot about how best to limit the influx, they’ve actually talked for twenty years about how to deal with migration. There is no clear solution for this, so a goat path was devised, which now appears to be impossible.’
According to Beekman, Prime Minister Mark Rutte also reportedly put forward ideas in the Cabinet on how to effectively limit the influx, “but this was discussed within the cabinet last week, and only later will it become clear what will come of it” , continues. ‘But D66 has already shown that it doesn’t actually see anything in this intake restriction. So it’s an incredibly difficult subject within the cabinet.’
Near future
Beekman points out that the influx is currently lower due to the winter, but expects the discussion to heat up considerably in the summer. ‘If the influx increases in the spring – and people could end up on the streets again?’ The problem in the asylum chain is not solved overnight. Then the discussion will reignite and it remains to be seen how they will solve that problem in the coalition ».