The Dutch cabinet has approved two of the three replacement asylum measures it had been expected to back, agreeing to widen the grounds for declaring foreign nationals “undesirable” and to strengthen border controls.

However, it held back on controversial plans to criminalise being in the Netherlands without papers, and a separate plan to scrap compensation payable to refugees if the IND immigration service takes too long to process their claims.

Asylum minister Bart van den Brink of the centrist Christian Democrat CDA announced the package after the weekly cabinet meeting, two and a half weeks after the senate voted down the asylum emergency measures bill drafted by his far right PVV predecessor Marjolein Faber.

Rather than introducing a new bill, Van den Brink will push the changes through as amendments to existing legislation – a faster route than starting from scratch.

“Undesirables”

The first measure widens the legal grounds on which the government can declare foreign nationals “undesirable”, a status that can lead to expulsion and a one-year prison sentence for anyone who returns to the country.

It will apply to asylum seekers convicted of offences punishable by two years or more in prison, or several smaller offences that combined reach that threshold. For the first time it will also cover non-EU nationals.

The second tightens supervision of the internal land borders with Germany and Belgium, expanding the role of the Marechaussee – the military police who handle  border policing – on roads inland from the crossings.

Van den Brink said the focus would be on targeted checks behind the border rather than at the border itself. He did not confirm whether extra funding would follow.

What was held back

The harder fight – making it a criminal offence to remain in the Netherlands without valid residence papers, with a maximum prison sentence of six months – is being put off.

D66, the biggest party in parliament, has refused to back the measure, and the Christian Democrats are also wary that the wording could in practice apply to anyone without papers, including overstayers and people whose visas have lapsed.

A proposal to scrap the periodic penalties the IND has to pay when it misses the six-month deadline on asylum claims, which amounted to €79 million in 2025, has also not yet been approved.

Many of the changes which the draft legislation would have introduced will be enacted in June, when European legislation aimed at curbing asylum comes into effect.