This book compares the policies of Australia and Italy towards boat people who have arrived in the two countries since the early 1990s.

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The Hague has announced that 70,000 refugees are expected to come to the Netherlands this year. How can situations like at the Ter Apel asylum centre - where asylum seekers had to sleep outside due to a lack of space - be prevented.

Queer youths seeking asylum in the Netherlands are not adequately protected. The system that assesses asylum claims lacks child-specific processes and often fails to notice these youths' suffering.

VVD party members last week voted in favour of the new distribution law, which could oblige municipalities to accommodate asylum seekers. This happened after Prime Minister Rutte pledged to work on curbing the influx of asylum seekers. To what extent can he deliver on that promise?

The Clinical Epidemiology department at the LUMC has set up a series of lectures for asylum seekers. The series has become a huge success.

Moritz Jesse, associate professor of EU Law, was invited to give a talk about Migration, Asylum, and Integration at the 5th Ruppin International Conference on Immigration and Social Integration.

The shortage of reception places has become so great that the Dutch cabinet decided this week to take the lead in designating reception places itself. It is unusual that the Government is taking this measure. Up to now, the cabinet had left the management to municipalities. But the shortage of places…

At the end of 2020, the Advisory Committee on Aliens Affairs issued the report 'Nadeel van de twijfel' (The Doubt) on the way the (age) registration of asylum seekers in another EU member state is dealt with.

The asylum seekers’ centres in Hengelo, Almelo and Schalkhaar caused little or no nuisance in recent years. There have been hardly any incidents, according to information received by Dutch regional TV channel RTV Oost. However, Maarten Offinga, Mayor of Hardenberg, sounded the alarm with the state secretary…

In the Netherlands dozens of Eritrean minor refugees are wandering the streets, even though minor asylum seekers have a right to asylum.

The way age is determined by the IND is being questioned as a result of several court rulings. The problem is that it is difficult to determine whether a young asylum seeker is just over or under the age of 18. So far there is no suitable way to determine exactly how old someone is, Mark Klaassen, associate…

Rodrigues was asked to comment on the intention of certain Dutch political parties to examine whether the Netherlands, together with Denmark, could accommodate asylum seekers outside the EU, possibly in Rwanda.

As a lawyer, how can you contribute to ensuring that the best interests of the child play a greater role in immigration law? That question was the topic of asylum lawyer Bart Toemen's guest lecture in the course ‘Kind en migratie’ (child and migration), given in the master’s programme ‘Jeugdrecht’ (Child…

Dutch coalition parties VVD and CDA want to tighten asylum policy and have launched a plan to grant two types of statuses to refugees. They also intend to partially restrict the right to family reunification. However, this plan is facing strong opposition. With the proposal, the government can expect…

Dr. Moritz Jesse, Associate Professor European Law at the Europa Institute, gave a lecture about Migration and Asylum on Thursday 22 February 2018.

A recent ruling by the Dutch Council of State indicates that asylum seekers may no longer be sent back to Italy. The Council of State increasingly concludes that the countries at Europe's southern and eastern external borders expose migrants to degrading treatment. This in particular is a reason for…

The Moria deal has been marked as a controversial issue in the formation process for a new Dutch government – a development that fits with the government’s hesitancy in implementing what is already a meagre asylum policy, writes master’s student Nina Fokkink in an article in Dutch newspaper NRC.

It has happened more and more frequently in recent weeks: large groups of Moldovans who come to the Netherlands hoping to get asylum here. This means that Moldovans are currently the largest group of asylum seekers in the Netherlands after Syrians. It is unclear what caused this sudden influx.

Studying as an asylum seeker without a residence permit. Every year, student initiative IncLUsion enables dozens of asylum seekers to take several courses at Leiden University. ‘Education has given me a lot of support.’

Rodrigues participated last year at the 13th Network Europe Conference on 'European Integration Perspectives in Times of Global Crisis', organised by the Europa Institute Zurich (EIZ).

The Dutch asylum application centre in Ter Apel is overburdened, an issue that is currently a prominent feature in the Dutch media. In podcast De Verbranders, PhD students Neske Baerwaldt and Wiebe Ruijtenberg engage in dialogue, and use different angles to examine themes related to migration, borders…

Dr Moritz Jesse, Associate Professor of European Law at the Europa Institute Leiden, was sharing his thoughts on the transition from asylum seeker to refugee from a perspective of immigrant integration in Prague.

Municipalities are becoming more and more selective when it comes to the nationality, age and sex of the asylum seekers they are willing to take in. This is the outcome of an investigation by Dutch newspaper NRC. And the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) agrees with the results.…

On Tuesday 2 March, Jorrit Rijpma spoke at the Standing Committee on European Affairs of the Dutch Senate about the European Migration and Asylum Pact.

In the Netherlands, various local VVD parties are calling for an asylum stop. Other political parties, Ja21, BBB, PVV and FvD, also see an asylum stop as the solution to the continuing asylum problems. Earlier, an opinion poll showed that a majority (69 per cent) of the Dutch population agrees. Is an…

On Tuesday 30 May 2017 Jorrit Rijpma, Associate Professor at the Europa Institute, together with his colleagues Prof. Thomas Spijkerboer (Free University) and Dr. Maarten den Heijer (University of Amserdam), delivered a key note address at the Nordic Asylum Law Seminar in Reykjavik, Iceland.

On Friday 23 February 2018 from 10:00 till 12:00 the Institute of Immigration Law will host a guest lecture by Germa Lourens from the NIDOS Foundation on unaccompanied minor asylum seekers. The lecture will take place in room C0.06 of the KOG Building.

Over eighty percent of all Dutch requests to send asylum seekers back to the country where they should have requested asylum lead to nothing. This is shown by recent figures that Dutch broadcasting corporation NOS requested from the Ministry of Justice. That percentage applies to 2020, the year for…

The procedures for admitting minor asylum seekers from Camp Moria on Lesbos to the Netherlands are in breach of children’s rights according to Ton Liefaard, Professor of Children’s Rights and Peter Rodrigues, Professor of Immigration Law.

Dimiter Toshkov, Olaf van Vliet, Alexandre Afonso and Zouheir El-Sahli from the Institute of Public Administration (FGGA) and the Department of Economics (Faculty of Law) have been commissioned to carry out research for the European Asylum Support Office.

Making migration a key campaign issue in the recent Dutch general elections is one thing, but turning it into actual policy is another. ‘95% of Dutch immigration legislation is governed by European law’, says Emeritus Professor Peter Rodrigues in Dutch daily newspaper 'Trouw'. In short: political parties…

According to a recent court ruling, the reception of asylum applicants in the Netherlands is not in line with European requirements. The Dutch Government must take measures to amend the situation. What are the problems concerning the reception of asylum applicants and how realistic are the court’s d…

At this week’s EU summit in Brussels, Dutch Prime Minister Rutte will try to get support for his plans to combat migration. He proposes tighter border controls at Europe’s external borders and returning rejected seekers to their country of origin more often. But how feasible is the latter proposal?

This Autumn a group of young asylum seekers will attend the course ‘Know Your Rights’, which is being developed by Pro Bono Connect, New Dutch Connections, law firm DLA Piper and the Leiden Law Clinic. For this course we are looking for 20 jurists who are willing to coach the asylum seekers.

Rodrigues delivered a presentation at the 13th Network Europe Conference on 'European Integration Perspectives in Times of Global Crisis', which took place in Athens from 19 to 22 June 2022 and was organised by the Europa Institute Zurich (EIZ). His contribution was entitled 'Reform Scenarios for EU…

Asylum seekers wanting to get to Australia often end up in a detention centre on the tiny island state of Nauru. What effect does this ‘outsourcing’ of asylum seekers have on human rights? PhD candidate Patrick van Berlo went to Australia to investigate.

This project applies a social-historical approach to examine and contrast various groups of African-American slave refugees who sought freedom within North America between 1800 and 1860. It innovatively distinguishes between different “spaces of freedom” for runaway slaves, namely sites of formal, semi-formal,…

Mariana Gkliati has recently published an article at the special issue ‘Turkey's Changing Migration Regime and its Global and Regional Dynamics’ of Movements, Journal for Critical Migration and Border Regime Studies.

The Dublin claim determines which country of the European Union is responsible for processing the asylum application of a particular asylum seeker. In general, the first country in Europe where the asylum seeker arrives or transits is responsible for processing the asylum application. It is also possible…

How feasible is the new migration deal and is it really the breakthrough politicians like Mark Rutte claim it to be? Dutch television programme Nieuwsuur asked various experts, including Mark Klaassen, for an answer to that question.

Europa Institute staff members Jorrit Rijpma, Melanie Fink and Kristof Gombeer participated last week in the Odysseus Network’s Summer School on EU Immigration and Asylum Law and Policy (Brussels, 2-13 July).

On Friday 17 November, the annual meeting of the Consultative Forum of the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) took place.

On 9 November 2019 Melanie Fink, researcher at the Europa Institute, delivered a key note lecture at this year’s Advanced ELENA Course.

Suspending family reunification of refugee status holders is illegal. That was the ruling of a Dutch court in a case brought by a Syrian woman with asylum status. The (temporary) restriction on entry for family members was one of the pillars of the cabinet’s asylum deal in August.

The ‘spreidingswet’ (dispersal law) has been passed by Dutch Senate and will take effect on 1 February. In the municipality of Westland, however, a majority in the council is unwilling to create 700 extra reception places.

The European courtroom as political arena? Judicial interference in politically charged issues in European asylum law and criminal law