The Dutch government’s plans to step up the deportation of rejected asylum seekers have been dealt a blow after European Court of Justice ruled they must be released from detention after 18 months.

The court in Luxembourg said the 18-month term covered the total time a person has been detained while authorities attempt to remove them from the country.

The ruling means Dutch authorities are no longer able to reset the clock every time someone is taken into detention as a result of a change in their asylum status.

A spokesman for asylum minister Bart van den Brink said deportation was “no longer possible” for people who had reached the time limit.

Around 30 detainees who have lost their asylum claims were released immediately after the judgment was issued. Those who were held for longer than 18 months were paid compensation of up to €8,000 each.

Not prisons

The Netherlands has three holding centres in Rotterdam, Zeist and at Schiphol Airport for people who are due to be deported but cannot be expelled because of complicating factors, such as their country of origin refusing to receive them.

Agencies such as the immigration service IND told NRC they feared it would be impossible in practice to deport people who have reached the 18-month limit now they have lost the option of placing them in holding cells.

Lawyers who act for asylum seekers agreed. Esther Schooneveld, who secured the release of a Moroccan man who received €2,000 in compensation in the wake of the ruling, said: “Foreigners who have sat out the 18-month term cannot be detained again, and so cannot be deported.”

The detention centres are not prisons because living in the Netherlands without permission is not a crime, so asylum seekers are free to leave their cells during daytime hours and can use mobile phones without supervision.

Van den Brink hopes to resolve the issue by passing a law first drafted by the far-right PVV that would make it a criminal offence to stay in the country illegally, allowing overstayers to be arrested and held in regular jails.

However, the PVV has threatened to vote against the plan now it is in opposition because it claims the new coalition of D66, CDA and VVD have watered down the measure.

D66, the party of prime minister Rob Jetten, has said it will vote against the bill in the Senate, while the CDA wants to include guarantees for people who give care and support to refugees that they will not face criminal charges.