The case of an asylum seeker who ran up a debt of €10,000 and was fined €500 for failing to complete an integration course within three years was heard at the European Court of Justice on Tuesday. 

The court has been asked to decide if the Netherlands is acting within the law in requiring new arrivals to go through a formal integration course and then fining them if they failed to complete it within the deadline. 

The case revolves around a man from Eritrea who arrived in the Netherlands when he was 17. When he turned 18, he was told by the authorities he had to go through an “inburgering” course. When he failed to finish in time, he was ordered to repay a €10,000 loan he had taken out with the student finance group Duo to pay for the lessons. He was also fined €500. 

His lawyer Eva Bezem argues that her client was unable to complete the process in time partly because he is dealing with serious trauma and partly because he has mental disabilities. 

“Compare him with a Dutch child who has trouble at school,” Bezem told Trouw. “You help such a child to go through primary and secondary school using everything at your disposal. We would never fine them if they failed to pass their exams.” 

At the time, new arrivals were supposed to organise their integration into Dutch society themselves, but were able to borrow money to pay for it. If the course was completed in time, the loan did not have to be repaid.

Over the past few years, the Netherlands has fined over 3,400 new arrivals for not passing their integration exams within three years and can issue penalties of up to €1,250. According to Trouw, refugees currently have combined loans of €27 million and the total amount in outstanding fines is €2.3 million.  

The ruling may also have implications for the new “inburgering” system which came into effect in 2022. Even though personal loans have been abolished, newcomers are still required by law to complete the process in three years and the government plans to make the language test more difficult, although this has not yet happened.

The European court will take several months to publish its findings and Duo has stopped issuing fines in the meantime, Trouw said. 

The case was referred to Europe by the Council of State, the highest Dutch legal body.