New asylum system set to launch amid ongoing pressure at primary reception center

Tablets are ready in Ter Apel for the new registration process that asylum seekers will have to go through from Friday at the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND). The change coincides with the entry into force of the European asylum and migration pact, which is intended to speed up procedures and make them more stringent at the central asylum reception center. The IND has also set up flexible service desks that can be scaled up during peak periods.

Under the new procedure, several steps have been streamlined. The initial registration interview, where asylum seekers explain their reasons for applying, country of origin, and travel route to an IND officer, has been removed. Because of backlogs, this stage can currently involve waiting times of up to 21 weeks.

From Friday onwards, applicants will instead complete the questions on a tablet, available in ten languages. The IND says the more data-driven approach, including increased information-sharing within the EU, should speed up processing. Assistance will be provided for those who need help using the system.

The new procedure reduces the number of actors involved in the process or shifts their involvement to later stages. The mandatory medical examination will be abolished, and legal assistance will only become available towards the end of the procedure, when a decision is made on whether asylum is granted or refused.

Asylum lawyers have raised concerns, arguing that early legal support can help prevent mistakes in the process. They also warn that the changes may lead to more legal disputes, particularly as different asylum grounds will in the future be tied to varying rights, including rules on family reunification.

Starting Friday, the IND will dedicate 70 percent of its capacity to handling new asylum applications, which are expected to take between three and six months to process.

The remaining 30 percent will be reserved for the backlog of more than 54,000 cases still awaiting a decision. This means those applicants could face significantly longer waiting times. The Minister for Asylum and Migration has presented a plan aimed at clearing the backlog within three years.

VluchtelingenWerk points out that most people in this waiting group will not be covered by transitional arrangements. “The new rules apply to all of them,” said director Sjoerd Warmerdam.

The aid organisation is informing refugees in around 100 asylum reception centres, online, and outside the crowded Ter Apel facility about the changes. Warmerdam describes the claim that the new procedure will actually be faster as, for now, “an assertion.” “We will have to see after Friday.”

VluchtelingenWerk says it is ready to increase its presence in Ter Apel if demand rises after the implementation of the European asylum and migration pact. Director Sjoerd Warmerdam said the organisation currently operates daily with a small intervention team of three people, but can rapidly scale up if needed.

He describes how dozens of asylum seekers are already waiting outside daily for accommodation, sleeping in emergency night shelters elsewhere, and being brought back to the Ter Apel site at 07 a.m. each morning. “They are living in uncertainty and without information,” he said.

The Red Cross expects that pressure at Ter Apel will remain at least unchanged in the first days after the migration pact takes effect. The organisation has been providing emergency assistance there for three weeks already, including water, meals, sunscreen, and ponchos. It says this support is likely to remain necessary after Friday as well.