The Netherlands Suspends Receiving Asylum Seekers

The Netherlands decided to temporarily suspend the agreement to receive asylum seekers from Turkey until the end of 2023.
The Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security said, in a statement, that the Netherlands will no longer receive asylum seekers under the Turkey-European Agreement signed in 2016 (regarding refugees) until the end of 2023.
The statement added that the Netherlands has received “a large number of Syrians” since 2016 under the readmission agreement signed between Turkey and the European Union.
On March 18, 2016, Turkey and the European Union reached an agreement in the Belgian capital, Brussels, aimed at combating illegal immigration and human smuggling; Under the agreement, Turkey will receive migrants arriving on Greek islands whose departure from Turkey has been confirmed.

Within the terms of the agreement, the necessary measures are taken to return non-Syrian migrants to their countries, while the returned Syrians are housed in camps within Turkey, and a Syrian refugee registered with it is sent to the countries of the European Union for every Syrian returned to it.
According to a statement by the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security, the Amsterdam government still considers “these agreements important and will start implementing them again from 2024. But in the current situation it is unable to do so.”

This comes in light of the rise of the far-right, which rejects the presence of refugees, at a time when refugees are suffering from campaigns of hatred and increasing incitement in the West.