Fewer refugees come to NL but 100 councils still have no beds
In total, 21,100 people applied for refugee status in the Netherlands last year, 8,000 fewer than in 2024, national statistics office CBS said on Friday.
At the same time, however, 16,500 family members applied to join relatives in the country, a rise of 39% on the previous year and the highest number since 2013, when these figures were first registered by the CBS.
The number of applications by Syrian nationals fell by 71% to 3,300, but they still accounted for the largest group, as well as 12,000 of the family members. Applications by Eritreans doubled to 3,100. Applications by Iraqis also fell sharply, from more than 2,100 to just 575.
Housing
Meanwhile, the NRC reported on Friday that legislation designed to spread refugees more fairly around the country has created more beds but has failed to meet government targets.
There are now some 80,000 beds available for refugees in the Netherlands, but this is 23,000 short of what officials say is needed. Growth in the number of local refugee centres has stagnated, the paper said, following a year of often violent protests.
According to documents provided by refugee settlement agency COA, 100 of the Netherlands’ 342 local authority areas have still failed to provide any beds at all, even though the legislation requires every town and village to do their bit.
Some councils have also delayed or suspended plans ahead of the local elections on March 18, the paper said.
The new target, due to be agreed next month, is likely to be lower because fewer refugees than expected are now coming to the Netherlands.
Delays
The length of time asylum seekers are waiting to have their cases dealt with by the immigration service IND has risen again, even though the number of new arrivals has fallen for two years in a row, Trouw reported earlier this week.
More than half of new requests take more than 15 months to assess, the paper said, quoting IND figures. At the start of 2025, fewer than 10,000 people had been waiting for 15 months, but that number had more than doubled to 24,490 by the end of the year.
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