The immigration service IND has had to pay out almost €20 million in fines to asylum seekers who have had to wait too long for their cases to be decided.

The backlog in cases has led to a sharp rise in the number of claims from 45,500 in 2023 to 56,000 in the first eight months of this year.

The IND said the rise follows a decision by the Council of State to reinstate conditional penalties in September 2022, after it ruled that a law passed in 2020 to abolish them breached European law.

Asylum seekers receive €100 per day if the IND takes longer than 15 months to decide their case, up to a maximum of €7,500. The IND claimed that the rule was a perverse incentive for asylum seekers to challenge their decisions, given that 88% of its decisions are upheld on appeal.

“Conditional penalties don’t help the IND to make decisions faster,” a spokesman told the Telegraaf. “It’s not that we don’t want to decide on time, but we can’t manage it. Our colleagues’ time is taken up dealing with rule breaches and appeals and the IND cannot use that time to deal with new applications.”

The previous junior asylum minister, Eric van der Burg, lengthened the time limit from six months to 15 in the wake of the Council of State’s decision, but that temporary extension is due to expire on January 1.

The current coalition has included measures in its outline agreement to restrict asylum seekers’ access to legal aid and restrict them to one chance to appeal. It also wants to make a fresh attempt to “abolish or restrict” conditional penalties.