AMSTERDAM: The Dutch government said on Friday it aimed to implement a raft of measures to limit migration in the coming months, including a moratorium on all new applications, days after Germany announced new border controls to keep out unwanted migrants.
The new government, led by nationalist Geert Wilders’ anti-Islam PVV party, said it would declare a national asylum crisis, enabling it to take measures to curb migration without parliamentary consent.
Opposition parties have questioned whether this move is necessary or even legal, but the PVV’s migration minister Marjolein Faber said she was acting on opportunities granted by the country’s own migration laws.
“We are taking measures to make the Netherlands as unattractive as possible for asylum seekers,” Faber said in a statement on Friday.
The government reconfirmed its aim to seek an exemption of EU asylum rules, even though Brussels is likely to resist, as EU countries have already agreed on their migration pact and opt-outs are usually discussed in the negotiating phase.
“We have adopted legislation, you don’t opt out of adopted legislation in the EU, that is a general principle,” EU spokesman Eric Mamer told reporters when asked about a possible Dutch opt-out on Friday.
Among its first moves, the government said it would end the granting of open-ended asylum permits, while significantly limiting options for those who have been granted asylum to reunite with their families.
It would also start working on a crisis law that would suspend all decisions on new applications for up to two years, and that would limit facilities offered to asylum seekers.
Wilders won an election last year with the promise of imposing the strictest migration rules in the EU. He managed to form a cabinet with three right-wing partners in May, but only after he gave up his own ambition to become Prime Minister.
The cabinet instead is led by Dick Schoof, an unelected bureaucrat who has no party affiliation.
Like its neighbor Germany, the Netherlands said it will also impose stricter border controls to combat human trafficking and curb irregular migration.
Dutch aim for migration clampdown as government sees “asylum crisis”
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Dutch aim for migration clampdown as government sees “asylum crisis”
- The new government said it would declare a national asylum crisis, enabling it to take measures to curb migration without parliamentary consent
- Opposition parties have questioned whether this move is necessary or even legal
British navy says it tracked Russian sub for three days in Channel
- The Russian ships had arrived from the North Sea and entered the Channel.
- “Expert aircrew were prepared to pivot to anti-submarine operations if Krasnodar had dived below the surface,” the statement said
LONDON: The British navy said Thursday it tracked a Russian submarine navigating through the Channel for three days, as it steps up efforts to police its seas against such threats.
A British naval supply ship with an on-board helicopter was deployed to track the stealthy Kilo-class submarine Krasnodar and the tug Altay, the Royal Navy said in a statement.
The Russian ships had arrived from the North Sea and entered the Channel.
“Expert aircrew were prepared to pivot to anti-submarine operations if Krasnodar had dived below the surface,” the statement said.
But it sailed on the surface throughout the operation, despite unfavorable weather conditions.
Near the island of Ouessant, off northwest France, the British said they handed over monitoring of the vessels to a NATO ally, without saying which one.
The British military carried out a similar shadowing operation in July, after spotting the Russian sub Novorossiysk in its territorial waters.
Defense minister John Healey announced on Monday the launch of a multi-million pound program to improve the Royal Navy’s capabilities in the face of Moscow’s “underwater threats.”
According to London, Russian submarine activity in British waters has increased by about a third over the past two years.
In early December, the UK and Norway signed a cooperation agreement to jointly operate a fleet of frigates to “hunt down” these submarines in the North Atlantic.
