Fewer asylum applications are being approved in the Netherlands, the Telegraaf reported on Monday.

Figures from the IND immigration service show that just 35% of first-time asylum applications were granted between November 2024 and October 2025. A year earlier, the approval rate stood at 56%.

For years, the paper points out, the Netherlands was among the EU countries with the highest recognition rates, regularly approving 70% to 80% of claims.

By week 50 of this year, the Netherlands had received just over 40,000 asylum requests, including repeat applications and family reunification cases, according to immigration ministry figures. With two weeks still to go, the total for 2024 is expected to approach 44,000, which is well down on earlier government forecasts.

The sharp fall in approvals is partly due to changes in the assessment of how safe conditions are in asylum seekers’ countries of origin. For example, 85% of Syrian applicants were granted asylum last year, but that figure has dropped to 51%. Since June, requests from Syrian nationals have been assessed on a case by case basis.

Approval rates have also dropped sharply for applicants from Yemen, Iraq and Turkey, after the Netherlands tightened policy by designating parts of those countries or specific population groups as safe.

Since mid-2024, asylum seekers have also been required more often to prove they are at personal risk, rather than relying on belonging to a specific population group or religion.

The rise in rejections has renewed questions about what happens to people once they have exhausted the appeals process and been ordered to leave the country, the paper said.

Of the 17,510 rejected refugees registered this year as having “left”, officials are only certain that about 60% have actually gone, either through deportation or voluntary return with financial support.