EU court asked to rule on third-country refugees from Ukraine

The Netherlands’ highest administrative court has added further confusion to the situation facing third-country nationals from Ukraine, by ruling that six of them can remain in the country after all.

In January the Council of State said all third-country nationals had to leave their refugee accommodation this month and return to their countries of origin, but since then several lower courts have come up with conflicting rulings.

Now the council has said that six people can wait until the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg has given its verdict on how the European guidelines should be interpreted.

“A ruling from the Council of State is guiding,” spokesman Pieter-Bas Beekman told NOS Radio 1 News on Wednesday. “So if other third-country nationals in the same situation report to us, they could receive a similar ruling.”

Amsterdam court has asked the court in Luxemburg for its ruling and has said it will not expel some 200 third-country nationals from housing until that has been published.

Ukrainian nationals in the Netherlands can remain here and work.

Refugee minister Eric van der Burg admitted on Friday that the situation is “extremely complex” after some were given the green light to remain in the Netherlands in court verdicts, but others were told to leave.

Judges in Roermond, Haarlem and Den Bosch have said that third-country nationals can stay in the Netherlands as long as Ukrainians themselves, whereas judges in Zwolle, Utrecht, The Hague and Arnhem judges have ruled that the Council of State, as the highest legal body in the country, should be respected.

In total some 2,500 third-country nationals came to the Netherlands along with the influx of Ukrainian refugees. Some were students or working, others are married to Ukrainian nationals.