State Secretary must simply process asylum applications from Palestinians | Asylum

Van der Burg announced on December 19, 2023 that the Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND) would freeze asylum applications from Palestinians for six months. He wrote this in a letter to the House of Representatives at the time.

In concrete terms, this meant that no asylum seekers would be sent back to the Gaza Strip and the West Bank during that six-month period. Palestinian asylum seekers who have already exhausted their legal remedies and have to return had to wait six months before their departure.

Van der Burg may freeze the processing of asylum applications if the security situation in a country is uncertain in the short term and it is unclear how it will develop further. According to the State Secretary, this was the case in the Palestinian Territories.

But the Council of State decided on Wednesday that the IND must simply process asylum applications from Palestinians. According to the Council of State, Van der Burg did not sufficiently substantiate his decision because he did not base it on the most current information.

For example, the State Secretary did not look at developments from early November to December 19, 2023 in the Palestinian Territories. Thus, the lull in fighting between Hamas and Israel ended during that period.

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In addition, the Council of State notes that a number of refugees from the Gaza Strip who have applied for asylum in the Netherlands have said that the situation there is not uncertain. They call the situation unsafe, but not temporary.

As a result, Van der Burg may not decide on a so-called moratorium, but the asylum applications must be assessed within the normal period.

The ruling of the Council of State only concerns the period until December 19. The decision applied from that date. Subsequent developments in the Palestinian Territories play no role in the case.

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