An MP from the ruling right-wing Liberal VVD is drawing up draft legislation to reduce the access of people from eastern Europe to Dutch social security benefits, RTL news says on Friday.

The broadcaster says VVD MP Malik Azmani believes Poles, Bulgarians and Romanians who end up unemployed make ‘unreasonable’ use of ‘our social security’.

‘I’ve warned about so-called welfare tourism before,’ Azmani said. The MP fears that if measures are not taken now, abuse of the Dutch system will continue. ‘The Netherlands is not a place of luxury for lazy people. You have to role up your sleeves and get on with it.’

‘The solution is obvious,’ Azmani told the broadcaster. ‘Councils should first ask the immigration service if someone has a right to remain in the Netherlands. Only then can councils decide if people are entitled to welfare benefits.’

Law

By law, EU citizens have no rights to welfare benefits within three months of arriving in the Netherlands. A request for welfare benefits within five years can also be a reason to have the right to residency terminated, the social affairs ministry said last year.

Some 600,000 people from other EU countries currently live in the Netherlands and 20,000 of them are claiming jobless or welfare benefits, the national statistics office CBS said last year.

The Dutch parliament has recently approved legislation which will allow officials to cut welfare benefits if people do not speak a reasonable level of Dutch.