By Bart H. Meijer
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -The Dutch government said on Friday it aimed to implement 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 the 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.
The Netherlands received two first-time asylum applications per 1,000 inhabitants in 2023, equal to the EU average, Eurostat data shows. Ten European countries had a higher relative number of asylum seekers last year.
But after years of budget cuts, the country's only registration center for asylum seekers has been struggling to deal with the flow of migrants, forcing hundreds of refugees at times to sleep in the rough.
Despite the relatively moderate numbers, Prime Minister Dick Schoof said curbing the flow of migrants was necessary to deal with problems on the housing market and to improve access to healthcare and education.
"I don't want to label it the only problem, but the fact is, it isn't helping," Schoof said.
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.
"We have adopted legislation, you don't opt out of adopted legislation in the EU, that is a general principle," EU spokesman Eric Mamer said.
Among its first moves, the government said it would stop granting 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 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 Schoof, an unelected bureaucrat who has no party affiliation.
The Netherlands will also impose stricter border controls to combat human trafficking and curb irregular migration.
(Reporting by Bart Meijer; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
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