The Council of State in The Netherlands has ruled that single male asylum seekers that first applied for asylum in Belgium may not be sent back here. In its ruling the Dutch Council of State spoke of a “system failure” on the part of the Belgian authorities when it comes to reception of this group of asylum seekers and the protection of their rights.
Dutch Council of State rules that single male asylum seekers may not be sent back to Belgium
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Under the conditions of the Dublin Agreement EU countries can send asylum seekers back to another EU country where they had applied for asylum first. This is to prevent them from applying for asylum in more than one country.
However, the Council of State in The Netherlands says that single men that apply for asylum in Belgium face a genuine risk of ending up on the streets and not being provided with “the most elementary requirements: bed, board and a bath”. As it considers this to be a violation of human rights, the Dutch Council of State has ruled that single male asylum seekers that have arrived in The Netherlands from Belgium should be able to apply for asylum in The Netherlands.
It is not clear how many asylum seekers are affected by the ruling. The Dutch daily ‘Algemeen Dagblad’ writes that last year The Netherlands sent 2,200 asylum seekers back to other EU countries. More than three-quarters of these were sent back to Germany, France, Spain and Austria. The rest were returned to “other countries”, including Belgium