The IND immigration service had to pay €79 million in compensation to asylum seekers last year after taking more than the legal time to complete assessing their applications. The figure is more than double the 2024 total.

Asylum seekers can go to court for compensation if assessing their case takes longer than six months. The average time now taken has stretched to more than a year.

At the end of 2025, some 51,000 people were still waiting for their claims to be assessed and the target is unlikely to be met this year either, the IND said. Just over a third of applications are now approved.

In total, 24,070 people applied for refugee status in the Netherlands for the first time last year, 8,000 fewer than in 2024, according to the 2025 IND figures.

Scrap the fines

The agency has again called for the system of fines to be scrapped, saying it does not make it any easier to complete asylum investigations.

“We want to take quicker decisions but we can’t, even with the threat of a fine,” the service said. “And every court case involving fines costs us money and capacity which could be better spent. The fines have to be scrapped as soon as possible.”

Residency permits

The IND also said 84,480 people applied for a residency permit last year, down almost 2.4%. The number of applications to become a naturalised Dutch citizen – which entails giving up your original nationality – fell by 3,000 to 51,760.

Some 86% of applications for a highly-skilled migrant or other visa were approved, with Indian nationals, Turks and Americans making up the top three. Almost seven in 10 applications for permit to do low skilled work were approved, with people from Ukraine, India and the Philippines leading the way.

People from Syria, India and Turkey topped the list of people applying to become Dutch.