Senate votes to axe penalty payments for asylum applicants

Senators voted on Tuesday to scrap all penalty payments to asylum seekers whose applications are delayed beyond the legal six month deadline.

This means that anyone applying for asylum status in the Netherlands and has to wait more than the maximum term of 6 months for a decision, will not be financially compensated for having to wait longer than promised.

The decision was agreed with a large majority; asylum minister Bart van den Brink announced recently that the immigration service IND had paid out almost €100 million in penalties for missing deadlines in the first seven months of 2026.

The IND said penalty payments do nothing to speed up decisions.

The legal changes agreed in the senate also introduce rules allowing authorities to detain people who are deliberately refusing or avoiding leaving the country despite having an application rejected. It also makes it easier to declare foreign nationals convicted of crimes “undesirable”.

The changes do not include another idea, first proposed by the right-wing PVV, which would formally criminalise illegal residence. This caused controversy in April when it was voted down, as it could mean anyone without their residency paperwork sorted out (including foreign nationals whose permits lapsed) could be prosecuted.

D66 senator Boris Dittrich told Dutch News at the time that the law, if passed, could open the door to a future right-wing cabinet “hunt down all illegal immigrants.”

Van den Brink has since proposed a narrower bill that would only criminalise rejected asylum seekers who actively “frustrate” their return, with a maximum penalty of six months in jail.