Auteursarchief: Paul Minderhoud

Paul Minderhoud

Over Paul Minderhoud

Paul Minderhoud is professor (0.2) in Regular Migration law. The chair is part of the Department of International and European Law. Regular migration law deals with the admission and legal position of foreign nationals (not being asylum seekers) in the Netherlands. Almost all aspects of regular Dutch migration law are now governed by international and European legislation. These international rules and agreements raise important questions of a legal nature that are part of the research of this chair. Important subjects that are addressed in this context are: free movement, border control, family reunification, study, long-term resident status and return.

Obligations to accommodate irregular migrants: will the local bed-bath-bread facilities survive?

By Paul Minderhoud

1. Introduction

Thousands of irregular migrants reside in the Netherlands. This number includes migrants who have exhausted all legal remedies and whose claim to stay is rejected and therefore must leave the Netherlands on their own initiative. Since 2019, those who do not immediately do so can – for a certain period – be accommodated in one of the five recently established National Aliens Facility locations (Landelijke Vreemdelingenvoorzieningen, LVV) in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Eindhoven and Groningen, supervised by the Repatriation & Departure Service of the Ministry of Justice and Security in cooperation with municipalities. These LVVs are an addition to the  so-called central freedom-limiting location (Vrijheidsbeperkende Locatie, VBL), based in Ter Apel and are currently still in a pilot stage. It is the intention to extend the number of LVVs to eight locations. Migrants who are accommodated in these LVVs will have to cooperate in finding a lasting solution to their situation, which in most cases means they have to return. The existing local bed-bath-bread facilities in these municipalities and, in time, in all municipalities, must be closed. But is this closure possible in light of international obligations? Do the plans really result in ending this form of municipal facilities?

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