Asylum seekers in the Netherlands are less likely to be granted formal refugee status since the immigration service IND introduced new procedures last summer.

Previously, around 80% of initial applications were approved, but this has now fallen to 65%, according to a report in the NRC on Wednesday.

Asylum seekers are now required to provide documents proving that they are personally at risk, rather than belonging to a group facing general threats. Those unable to present documentation must undergo a “credibility check” across five key areas, intended to establish the reliability of their account.

“We think this may have influenced the approval rate, but we have not investigated it,” an IND spokesman told the newspaper.

Another factor may be changes to the classification of certain countries. Iraq and Yemen, for example, are now considered safer for some individuals. In particular, Christians and Yezidis are no longer regarded as “vulnerable minorities” in Iraq, the paper said.

Refugee support agency Vluchtelingenwerk and lawyers specialising in asylum applications say the stricter policy is affecting genuine refugees.

“Sometimes a case is not pursued because a document is missing, even though that says nothing about how believable the person is,” said Myrthe Wijnkoop from Vluchtelingenwerk.

The IND has also stopped assessing all applications from Syrians since the fall of the Assad regime.

Last September, Nieuwsuur reported on the case of an Afghan woman whose asylum request was rejected despite the plight of women in Afghanistan.

Lawyers also described the case of a 15-year-old Somali girl smuggled out of the country by her family to avoid forced marriage to a leader of terror group Al Shabaab. Her application was also denied.