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'Hesitancy in implementing what is already meagre asylum policy’

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.

Nina Fokkink

Fokkink wrote the (Dutch) article together with lawyer and philosopher Martijn Stronks, Assistant Professor at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. 

The Dutch government marking the implementation of the Moria deal as a controversial issue is hard to follow, the authors write. 'According to a letter from the state secretary, by Christmas 49 vulnerable persons had been brought to the Netherlands from Greece. In the week of 18 January, the other 51 persons were added to make up the number the government had agreed to take, so that the agreement to relocate persons would have been fully implemented’. A plan that has already been fully implemented – so how come this letter has been considered controversial? The reason is that the state secretary has not so much implemented the plan, but has instead juggled with numbers and categories. The truth is that only 2 out of the agreed 50 minor asylum seekers have been moved to the Netherlands.'

Tinkering with the conditions of a benevolent asylum policy and then displaying hesitancy in implementing that policy: for years this has been the essence of the Dutch asylum policy. 'Saying that the implementation of the Moria deal is controversial, therefore, is just part of a depressing pattern.'

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