legal and social conditions for asylum seekers and refugees in ...

Submission of the application
All asylum seekers have to submit their application in one of the three Application Centres (AC),
located at the German border (Zevenaar), at the Belgian border (Rijsbergen) and at Schiphol
Airport near Amsterdam. A fourth Application Centre, located in Ter Apel, near the German
border, is scheduled to open in the near future.
Asylum seekers claiming asylum at a border point where there is no AC are referred to the
closest AC to submit their application. The same applies to in-country applicants who contact the
asylum authorities or a police station.
There are no fixed time limits for submitting the initial request for asylum. However, asylum
seekers are expected to come forward as early as possible. As a rule, this means within 24 hours
after arrival. If an undocumented asylum seeker fails to submit his/her application within 24 hours,
it may be classed as inadmissible. However, the District Court (see below) has decided that the
Immigration and Naturalisation Service (“Immigratie en Naturalisatie Dienst” – IND, a semiautonomous
body operating under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice) should nevertheless
examine whether a decision of inadmissibility might amount to refoulement.
Accelerated procedure
In the Applications Centres, all applications are examined by the IND in order to determine
whether they should be processed under the accelerated procedure or allowed to enter the
normal determination procedure.
In the first 24 hours following registration in the Centre, IND’s officials investigate the applicant’s
identity and nationality and his/her travel route and collect personal data (photographs,
fingerprints, documentation, etc.). The aim of this preliminary investigation is to identify the claims
which have no chance of success and which should be rejected immediately.
If the application is deemed to be apparently without basis, manifestly ungrounded or
inadmissible, a negative decision is made by the IND within 48 (working) hours following
registration. The criteria for determining if an application is manifestly ungrounded or inadmissible
are described under “Normal determination procedure” below.
With the exception of this 48-hour time limit, the accelerated procedure does not differ radically
from the normal determination procedure (see below)
If no decision is made within 48 hours, the application is automatically transferred to the normal
procedure and the applicant allowed entry into the country.
Approximately 15% of all asylum seekers were placed in the accelerated procedure in 1999.
All applicants processed under the accelerated procedure receive legal aid either from private
lawyers or from the lawyers of the Foundation for Legal Aid in Asylum Cases (“Stichting
Rechtsbijstand Asiel”).
A negative decision by the IND may be appealed to one of the five District Courts if it is combined
with detention (this is always the case at Schiphol airport). The appeal has to be lodged within 24
hours. It has no automatic suspensive effect, but this can be granted by the court upon separate
request. If the negative decision is not combined with detention, the asylum seeker must first
appeal for review at the IND. Only if this review is negative, can he/she appeal to the Court.
204
The Netherlands