Dutch government collapses over migration debate

2023-07-07 18:46:50

The ANP news agency reported the development late Friday evening. In the past few days, there had been a dispute in the four-party coalition over a move by Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s conservative VVD party on the subject. The influx of asylum seekers should be limited.

Like other European countries, the Netherlands is grappling with the question of how to deal with the large number of immigrants. The Prime Minister’s centre-right VVD party had proposed tough rules for asylum seekers and threatened to leave the cabinet if the measures proposed by Rutte were not passed. Specifically, Rutte calls for making family reunification more difficult for war refugees.

However, two junior parties refused to support this. The Christian Democratic party Christen Unie had said it “couldn’t live with Rutte’s proposal,” and Finance Minister Sigrid Kaag’s center-left D66 party reportedly rejected the request. New elections should now be scheduled.

The Dutch government has been at odds on the issue since it took office a year and a half ago. A scandal erupted last year when a baby died in a crowded migration center. Rutte’s previous government resigned in 2021 after a child benefit scandal.

According to earlier media reports, Rutte was prepared in the current case to let the government fail if necessary. Asylum applications in the Netherlands rose by a third to over 46,000 last year and are expected to rise to more than 70,000 this year – a new high since 2015.

This is likely to place a significant burden on the country’s asylum facilities. For months in the past year, hundreds of refugees have been forced to sleep outdoors with little or no access to drinking water, sanitation or health care. Rutte had announced that he wanted to improve the conditions in the facilities by reducing the number of refugees.

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