“Dutch Government Sparks Criticism for Using Development Funds for Asylum Reception”

In the House of Representatives, the two government parties D66 and the ChristenUnie are critical of the new government plan to spend about 3.4 billion euros in development funds on asylum reception in the Netherlands in the coming years.

Opposition parties PvdA and GroenLinks call the proposal unacceptable and speak of the “emptying” of the budget for poverty reduction in the poorest countries in the world. “The Netherlands will become the largest recipient of its own development money,” notes PvdA Member of Parliament Joris Thijssen. “That is not possible in such a rich country as the Netherlands.

The critical parties fear that current aid programs in developing countries will be jeopardized if the Netherlands cuts off the money tap. “We have to be sure that we have enough money left over to do what we need to do in the Netherlands,” says D66 MP Alexander Hammelburg. He wants Minister Liesje Schreinemacher for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation to come up with a solution.

The branch organization of more than 100 development organizations in the Netherlands, deliveriesfears that aid to the world’s poorest will be jeopardized.

Two weeks ago, it appeared in the Spring Memorandum that the cabinet wants to get 0.5 billion euros from the development cooperation pot this year for asylum seekers who have just arrived in the Netherlands. That amount will increase to 1.1 billion euros annually in the coming years. The government is short of money because of the growing number of asylum seekers and wants to close the gap in the budget in this way.

Incidentally, it has been happening for years in the Netherlands that shortages in asylum reception are solved with development money. But so far it has not been about such high amounts.

The question is whether Minister Schreinemacher will accept the request from the House of Representatives to adjust the plans. She calls the measures painful, but supports them. Schreinemacher believes that the rising costs of asylum reception must also be paid. She will see which development projects will be scrapped.

It is not yet clear whether the governing parties D66 and CU will ultimately accept this approach.