D66 senators are set to vote against tough new asylum laws introduced by the last government, even though the new coalition of D66, VVD and CDA included them in its programme for government.
The plans include limiting residency permits to three years, creating a two-tier system for refugees, and making it a crime to live in the Netherlands without legal status.
While in opposition D66 was one of the fiercest critics of the plans, introduced by former asylum minister Marjolein Faber of the far-right PVV party.
But the incoming coalition has said it wants to push the laws through to avoid further delays to reforming the asylum system.
“We’re not fans of it, but sometimes you have to go the extra mile,” D66 leader and prospective prime minister Rob Jetten told Nieuwsuur last week. “The Netherlands needs clarity when it comes to asylum policy.”
But D66 senator and asylum spokesman Boris Dittrich said the party’s seven members in the upper house were still opposed to the plans. “The Senate is not bound by the coalition agreement,” he told Trouw.
Dittrich said his objections to making illegal residence a criminal offence were unchanged. “It’s inhumane to punish people who don’t possess the right papers,” he said, adding that other laws were available to deal with illegal immigrants who cause problems for society.
Soup clause
The clause was one of the most controversial aspects of the proposed law, after the PVV managed to pass an amendment that would have made it an offence to assist illegal asylum seekers in any way.
D66, coalition partner CDA and the smaller Christian parties CU and SGP threatened to vote against the law on the grounds that it could criminalise acts of charity such as offering a bowl of soup to a homeless refugee.
Caretaker asylum minister David van Weel brokered a compromise in the form of a “novelle”, a guidance note stating that helping asylum seekers would not be treated as an offence.
Dittrich said the D66 senators were also critical of the two-status model, under which would mean people who are directly threatened by their governments receive an “A” status and a better chance of being granted asylum, while those fleeing because of the conditions in their country would receive a “B” status.
The system was abandoned in the Netherlands in 2000 because it prompted a mass of legal challenges by asylum seekers on the “B” list.
“A lot of people with a B status challenged it in the hope of securing an A status, ” Dittrich said. “A lot of them ended up being allowed to stay. We don’t want to make that distinction.”
If D66 votes against the laws in the upper house, the other two coalition partners VVD and CDA could still count on the support of the farmers’ party BBB and the right-wing JA21. But they will still need to find another nine votes, which could potentially be provided by the PVV, the far-right FVD and the CU.
