Schoof heads for first Brussels summit to focus on immigration
Prime minister Dick Schoof heads for his first EU leaders summit on Friday, pledging to put reducing immigration at the top of his list of issues.
Getting a greater “grip on migration” is a top priority and that “is the message I am taking to Brussels,” Schoof said earlier this week.
Other EU countries have also been making noise about tackling immigration, with Germany introducing border controls and Poland’s government aiming to temporarily suspend the right of arrivals to claim asylum, even though that clashes with international law and EU rules.
Denmark, Sweden and eastern European countries have operated tougher asylum rules for several years and Italy this week took a group of would-be immigrants to Albania where they will wait until their asylum claims are published, years after the plan was first mooted.
“We have to strengthen our outer borders and make it simpler to send people back. That is our message,” Schoof, a former head of the IND immigration service, said.
On Wednesday, foreign trade minister Reinette Klaver suggested the Netherlands set up a “return hub” in Uganda, where rejected refugees from an unnamed list of African countries could be sent if their claims are turned down.
Klaver made the suggestion during a trade mission to Uganda and said it would be up to asylum minister Marjolein Faber to sort out the details.
As a prime minister without a party, Schoof will be an “odd man out” in Brussels, broadcaster NOS said on Thursday. In addition, he will not be invited to the “pre-summit” meetings involving party leaders from the various political groupings.
Wilders’ influence
“EU leaders are well aware of the political situation in the Netherlands,” said Pieter de Gooijer, the former Dutch permanent representative to the EU.
“Everyone wants to know what mandate Schoof is bringing. Will he get his instructions from The Hague, from Geert Wilders, who has immigration at the top of his list of issues?”
Schoof’s absence on Friday means the weekly cabinet meeting has been postponed to Monday and will not be hosted by one of the three deputy prime ministers, as usually happens.
At Monday’s meeting ministers are expected to discuss Faber’s detailed plan to invoke an asylum crisis in the Netherlands, which will allow her to take steps to curb the number of new arrivals and bypass parliament.
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