As of August 1, 2023, the Netherlands has seen a total of 7,900 new refugees arriving in the country during the second quarter of this year. This marks a notable increase of nearly

600 individuals compared to the same period in 2022, and a 15% rise from the first three months of this year.

However, the actual number of arrivals so far falls significantly short of the government's initial projections. Earlier forecasts had estimated that over 76,000 individuals would seek asylum in the Netherlands in 2023. These projections triggered crisis talks and raised concerns about managing the flow of newcomers, especially in light of the chaotic scenes witnessed last summer, where hundreds of people were forced to sleep outdoors.

Notably, the cabinet faced challenges and eventually collapsed due to the inability of ministers to reach a consensus on measures to control the number of family members applying to join partners and parents already in the Netherlands.

Recent figures released by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) indicate that 2,625 close family members arrived in the Netherlands during the second quarter of the year. This represents a nearly 25% increase from the first quarter of 2023, but a 17% decrease compared to 2022. The CBS highlights a decline in the number of Syrians, Iranians, and Eritreans joining their parents and partners with formal refugee status.

While the Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND) received a total of 20,122 new, repeat, and family requests for asylum in the first six months of 2023, the overall figure is only slightly higher than the previous year.

Despite the decrease in new arrivals, the IND still faces significant challenges, with an approximate backlog of 37,000 initial and repeat applications and 22,000 applications from family members. As a result, the waiting times for individuals seeking asylum in the Netherlands have now stretched to over a year on average. Photo by Mstyslav Chernov, Wikimedia commons.