Criminalising illegal residence appears impossible task
In the media image: Miko Guziuk on Unsplash
Dutch justice and asylum minister David van Weel has only one month to deliver a new emergency asylum law that would criminalise illegal residence. Geerten Boogaard, Professor of Constitutional and Administrative Law, said in ‘Trouw’ newspaper that he doubts he will succeed.
After a chaotic legislative process to introduce the strictest asylum policy ever, the Dutch cabinet agreed in July to an asylum law severely restricting the rights of illegal immigrants. This demand came from the right-wing PVV (Party for Freedom) and was quickly pushed through by the BBB and VVD coalition parties. However, experts and scholars have already shown that criminalising illegal residence is ineffective. The House of Representatives went so far as to even agree to criminalising providing assistance to illegal immigrants. Van Weel now has to make amendments and intends to do so through a ‘novelle’ – a constitutional loophole.
Professor Boogaard says that this seems straightforward, but is anything but. He explains that a ‘novelle is simply a legislative amendment.’ This requires that the Council of State is asked for advice. After that, authorities such as the police, the judiciary and the immigration chain must also be consulted. Finally, the House of Representatives can request a written and oral hearing of the supplementary bill. In addition to these obstacles, the current shortage of cells would pose a practical problem. Where are you going to house tens of thousands of offenders in prisons that are currently releasing criminals early due to a shortage of cells?
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Read the full article in Trouw (in Dutch)