Dutch probe sending rejected asylum seekers to Uganda: media

 

 Hundreds of migrants who seek shelter prepare to spend the night outside an overcrowded asylum seekers center in Ter Apel, northern Netherlands on Aug 25, 2022. [Getty Imageds]

The Netherlands is looking at the possibility of sending rejected asylum seekers to Uganda, a Dutch media report said Wednesday, as the country's far-right-led government moved to limit immigration.

Dutch Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Minister Reinette Klever was visiting the East African nation this week where she spoke to Ugandan ministers about migration, the NOS public broadcaster reported.

"In the end, we want to curb migration," said Klever, who belongs to the far-right Freedom Party (PVV) of anti-immigration lawmaker Geert Wilders.

"It's important for the cabinet that rejected asylum seekers to return to their country of origin. And that's where it sometimes stalls," she told the NOS.

"We have a long relationship with Uganda and it is a hospitable country," said Klever, adding that Asylum and Migration Minister Marjolein Faber would look into the issue.

Asked about the comments, a ministerial spokesman told AFP that Klever "had briefly discussed a number of possibilities for reception" in the region including in Uganda.

"That plan is still in its early stages," Jeroen van Dommelen said in an email.

The Dutch cabinet "must first investigate what the wishes of Uganda and the Netherlands are and what legally is possible and desirable," he added.

Wilders's PVV scored a major victory in elections last year and the firebrand lawmaker has promised "the strictest migration policy ever" to tackle what he termed an "asylum crisis" in the Netherlands.

Last week EU countries discussed "innovative" ways to increase deportations of irregular migrants and rejected asylum seekers including controversial plans to set up dedicated return centres outside the bloc.

Far-right gains in several European countries helped put migration issues on top of the agenda as home affairs ministers from the bloc's 27 states met in Luxembourg ahead of a gathering of EU leaders this week.

The ministerial talks also came only a few months after the European Union adopted a sweeping reform of its asylum policies.

The long-negotiated package, which will come into force in June 2026, hardens border procedures and requires countries to take in asylum seekers from frontline states or provide money and resources.