The three parties on the verge of forming the Netherlands' next government asked civil servants to investigate a number of far-reaching measures to curb immigration during the negotiation process, the NRC reports on Wednesday. The aim of the measures was to ‘discourage immigration and, once in the Netherlands, slow down the build-up of rights’, the paper says. The paper bases its claims on talks with civil servants and coalition negotiation documents, it says. The right-wing VVD and anti-Islam PVV were behind most of the requests, the paper said.
Children
For example, civil servants were asked to look at the idea of refusing to grant residency permits to non-married partners or to people who did not have a ‘strong economic and social connection’ to the Netherlands. Stopping children over the age of 15 from joining their parents was another option. It is not yet known what measures the new government plans to adopt but it is clear immigration faces new curbs, the paper said. In terms of asylum policy, the parties discussed prioritising cases involving families with children. This is because the longer their cases take, the more likely they are to get a permit in the interests of the child, the paper said.
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