Major EU country to declare 'asylum crisis' and bring in 'strictest policy ever'

The Netherlands is set to declare an "asylum crisis" and plans to introduce the "strictest admission rules in the EU", the country's migration minister has announced.

Proposals, announced on Friday, revealed the country would bring in stricter border checks, as well as "tit for tat" punishments of "troublemakers".

There will also be restrictions on family reunification preventing adult children from joining their parents.

The plans come after Geert Wilders' Freedom Party won the Dutch election for the first time in late 2023; his party is now in coalition with other parties, with the government led by the country's former spy chief Dick Schoof.

The migration minister Marjolein Faber, who is from the Freedom Party, said of the plans: "The voter has given a clear mandate. We need to change course and the influx must be reduced immediately.

"We are taking measures to make the Netherlands as unattractive as possible for asylum seekers. And there is no place here for anyone who abuses our hospitality. I am going for a safer Netherlands."

According to the Dutch government's press statement: "The Minister of Asylum and Migration and the Prime Minister will activate the emergency law as soon as possible."

The Dutch government is poised to ask the European Union for an opt-on its migration policy.

"We cannot continue to bear the large influx of migrants to our country. People are experiencing an asylum crisis, " Schoof said on Friday.

He refused to put a figure on exactly how much migration would be reduced by, saying that the government would assess the need for the crisis law by regularly "checking how the Netherlands is doing at that moment."