Almost 18,000 refugees are currently waiting for a BSN number which will allow them to work in the Netherlands, broadcaster NOS reported on Saturday.

At the beginning of 2022, 2,330 asylum seekers and refugees with official residency status were on the waiting list but the total has soared since then. Without a number it is virtually impossible to open a bank account, take out health insurance or start a college course as well as work.

The Dutch local authorities organisation VNG recognizes the problem and says some people do have to wait six months for the official number. But Ad Usman, who is in charge of the Gouda refugee centre says it can take up to 18 months.

The delay is “extremely frustrating” for people living in the refugee centre because they cannot get on with their lives,” he said.

Local authorities are responsible for sorting out bsn numbers but just five are licenced to issue them, according to NOS. The home affairs ministry is now looking to see if there is money available to expand this, junior minister Zsolt Szabó told parliament recently.

Szabó, a minister on behalf of the far-right PVV, declined to answer NOS’s questions personally but a spokesman said the asylum and migration ministry, led by Marjolein Faber is ultimately responsible for solving the problem.

“The ministries should stop pointing fingers at each other,” said D66 MP Anne-Marijke Podt. “Solve it, because it has taken long enough. I don’t understand why this is not happening.”

In April, state jobs agency UWV said companies have filed over 1,500 requests for work permits for asylum seekers this year following a court ruling last year which said they can work more than 24 weeks

Under the old rules, asylum seekers who have not been given residency permits are not allowed to work more than 24 weeks a year so they do not get the idea that their request for refugee status will be honoured.

But in April last year, the court decided that the current situation in the Netherlands is at odds with European rules which say asylum seekers should have access to the jobs market so that they become self-sufficient and are better integrated into society.

Skills

“If you extrapolate the number of requests made in the first months of this year the total number in 2024 will go up to 7,000,” UWV chairman Maarten Camps told Nu.nl at the time. Just 2,000 permits were requested in the whole of last year.

“Many of these people are highly skilled and it is important to use these skills,” he said. Most asylum seekers end up in relatively low-skilled jobs in restaurants, or cleaning via jobs agencies.

“It’s important to find the right match for people who are already here and staying here. That will also limit the number of labour migrants,” Camps said.