Offering undocumented migrants soup could be criminal offence

The government’s top advisory body has warned that even limited support for people without residency papers, such as offering them a bowl of soup, could become a criminal offence under the new asylum emergency law.

In a long-awaited opinion, the Council of State said the tougher legislation creates “a real possibility” that helping undocumented migrants will be treated as complicity in illegal residence.

This could apply not only to those providing shelter but also to aid workers, since they “make it possible for someone to remain illegally in the Netherlands,” the Council of State said.

The controversial clause, which makes helping people without legal status punishable by law, was added into new refugee legislation at the insistence of the PVV, with backing from the VVD and SGP, shortly before the summer recess.

Justice and asylum minister David van Weel said in a reaction to the advice that he plans to remove the provision that penalises helping undocumented people from the draft legislation.

The changes will first be discussed in the lower house of parliament and if MPs approve, the legislation could then win majority backing in the senate.

The asylum emergency law contains a broader package of measures, including the abolition of permanent residence permits for refugees and faster procedures to deport rejected asylum seekers.

It was designed to address pressures on the reception system and won a narrow majority in the lower house only after the government promised to seek advice from the Council of State on the disputed clause.

The council also criticised the way the law was passed, saying questions about the scope of the PVV amendment were only raised after it had been adopted. Such issues, it said, should have been addressed during parliamentary debate.