Human rights in decline, humanity in decline.

Applying for asylum is a human right. Freedom of movement is also a human right.

Are human rights still being respected when the European Union guards its external borders by investing money in detention centres in Libya? And are these rights still being respected when children are placed in detention while they are fleeing war? And when even more people die at the European external borders? And when people are deported to countries they have never been to and with which they have no ties? This is what the new European laws propose: forced deportations, more detention centres, fewer possibilities to apply for asylum. And the latest legislative proposal that criminalises illegal stay in the Netherlands follows the same line.

 

Dutch Asylum Emergency Measures Act

The Netherlands is at the forefront in Europe in efforts to criminalise migration. The new laws proposed by the Dutch government restrict the right to asylum and freedom of movement. The asylum law is a package of measures that, among other things, provides for the criminalisation of unlawful stay in the Netherlands.

 

Vulnerable people treated as criminals

If the new law is adopted, it will become a criminal offence not to possess the correct documents in the Netherlands. This will apply to thousands of people living in the Netherlands without documents, including those who have lived here for a long time. These are often vulnerable men, women and children, who will be locked up in detention centres for their deportation to a country where they are unsafe.

 

A law that legitimises racism

The new law may also legitimise racist violence and profiling, such as the “concerned citizens” who last summer carried out border controls on their own initiative and stopped people of colour to check them. And the protection that municipalities currently provide within programmes for undocumented people becomes very precarious if this law comes into force.

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Who are undocumented people?

People who reside unlawfully in the Netherlands. Politicians and the media often call them “illegals”—but no human being can be legal or illegal. They are ordinary women, men and children: people to whom the government does not want to grant asylum because they have not submitted enough evidence, or because they come from so-called ‘safe’ countries; people who entered the country legally and then stayed after their visa expired; also people who were born here to undocumented parents, without ever having possessed a residence document.

 

What would be good policy?

Not having the right documents harms no one and should not be a crime. Most undocumented people live and work in the Netherlands: they clean houses and offices, work in the food industry, or in construction and warehouses. The solution is to regularise their stay so they can work legally, pay taxes and rent homes, with all the positive consequences this brings for people themselves and for Dutch society as a whole. But the new laws go in the opposite direction, turning people in this country into criminals, even though they have committed no crime.

 

A group of people in the Netherlands is undocumented because their asylum application has been rejected.

This does not mean that they never have a chance again, or that they have no right at all to a residence permit. In the media you often read the word “exhausted of procedures” (uitgeprocedeerd). This term is not correct because it suggests a definitive rejection. Many people are rejected due to a lack of evidence. The bitter reality is that there have been enormous cuts to (legal) aid for refugees, and the burden of proof for refugees has become increasingly strict. Good policy also means a fair asylum policy, and a programme that helps rejected asylum seekers prepare a new asylum application. In recent years this was set up under the name National Aliens Facility (LVV), in which people were accommodated and supported in five municipalities. Faber has stopped this LVV, as a result of which some municipalities are now paying for this themselves.

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What will happen in Europe in 2026?

The new legislative packages proposed in the Netherlands are in line with the asylum laws that Europe will implement in 2026. Then new European migration laws will be introduced through four different directives and regulations.

 

The Migration and Asylum Pact (2024) aims to “limit the inflow of migrants”. It restricts the possibilities to apply for asylum. Fast border procedures, children in border detention and tougher external borders.

The Facilitation Directive (2024) criminalises migration and humanitarian aid.
The Europol Regulation expands surveillance and data collection of migrants.
The Deportation Regulation (2026) implements it: profiling, mass detention, deportation.

 

The Migration and Asylum Pact, the Facilitator’s Package and now the Deportation Regulation are rapidly steering the EU towards state-sponsored abductions, deportations and terror against racialised and migrant communities, driven by invasive surveillance technology — following the American model.

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Return/deportation regulation

1. Deportation to places people do not come from: People who are rejected can be sent back to places with which they have no ties — no lawyer, interpreter or oversight. This is framed as “return hubs”, but they are simply detention centres with little oversight of human rights.

2. Fewer rights, more detention

The possibilities for voluntary return are severely restricted: the minimum period disappears and only a maximum period of 30 days remains. Many people fall completely outside voluntary return due to strict conditions (source: ECRE – Proposal for an EU Return Regulation). In addition, (border) detention is greatly expanded: the maximum duration increases from 18 to 24 months, and even after that people can still be placed under electronic monitoring. Detention becomes possible on the basis of broad criteria such as the absence of a fixed address — a reality for many undocumented people (source: ECRE, idem). The pact introduces a mandatory border procedure for groups that, according to the EU, “are unlikely to need protection” or are considered a security risk. Their application is assessed at the border in a closed setting; in case of rejection a return procedure of a maximum of 12 weeks follows immediately (source: European Commission – Border procedure and return).

Children can also be placed in detention.

3. Ethnic profiling: the proposal encourages governments to track down people without a visa/permit. As a result, people of colour are profiled.

4. Racist surveillance system: biometric data are stored and shared within Europe. An Amnesty report shows how fingerprints in Italy are taken under coercion — sometimes with physical violence.

5. More tax money goes to security, police, detention and deportation.

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