Council of State: do not abolish penalty payment for asylum seeker Inland

The Council of State, which scrutinizes new cabinet legislation, considers the penalty payment an important weapon for citizens to compel the government to do its job. Therefore, responsible Secretary of State Ankie Broekers-Knol would do well to renounce her intention to end the penalty for good. The Council believes that a temporary suspension is defensible, but the abolition that Broekers-Knol advocates goes too far.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND) currently pays a million euros in periodic penalty payments every week due to the waiting times that have been incurred. That annoys the cabinet and the Chamber. However, an important part of the same Chamber also does not want to deprive asylum seekers of the tools to obtain justice. Broekers therefore made a compromise: she wants to get rid of the penalty payments, in order to continue to grant asylum seekers the right to take a lawyer at the start of their asylum procedure.

To accommodate the Council of State, Broekers promises to encourage the IND in another way to work faster. What ‘stimulus’ that will be left in the middle. For example, asylum seekers who have not been helped on time could automatically obtain a residence permit. The new permanent law will be introduced as soon as possible, so that the temporary law will really remain temporary, she assures.

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