Repeated Asylum Procedure
After rejection of an asylum application, the asylum seeker can submit a repeated asylum application. If the asylum seeker wishes to apply for an asylum application in the Netherlands again, depending on the situation, this is called a repeated or a successive asylum application. A repeated asylum application may be submitted if the applicant is in the Netherlands and has submitted an asylum application in the Netherlands before and that application was rejected or that application was first granted but the IND later withdrew the residence permit issued. It may be that the applicant wishes to submit an asylum application again because something has changed in his/her personal situation, or because he/she has new information about his/her country of origin.
Steps before submission:
Notification Second or successive asylum application: If the asylum seeker wishes to apply for asylum again, he/she first has to notify the IND. Together with his/her lawyer, they need to fill in a form for this and have to follow the exact steps that are set out in the form. If the asylum seeker has returned to the country of origin by force or has returned voluntarily and can prove this, they do not need to fill in the form. The lawyer will further explain this.
Steps in the application process
- Appointment at registration centre (AC)
The IND sends the asylum seeker an invitation letter when to submit an asylum application. This is only done if the notification form has been completed in full and if all the requested information has been enclosed. The asylum application can be submitted at a registration centre (AC). The invitation letter of the IND indicates which registration centre (AC) the applicant has to submit his/her application at. Usually the repeated asylum application takes one day. This is why the IND calls it the one-day assessment (EDT).
- Check information
After the applicant reports him/herself on the appointed date, the IND verifies his/her identity by examining documents and fingerprints.
- Interview IND
During this interview the applicant can explain why he/she is applying for asylum again. The aim of the interview is not that the applicant repeat his/her reasons for asylum but the aim of the interview is only to discuss new facts and circumstances. This could for example be new information that the applicant has not yet told or that he/she could not have known before.
- Decision
Following the interview, the IND will draw up an interview report. An IND staff member will assess the content and decides what is going to happen with the new application. There are 2 possible decisions:
- An asylum residence permit is granted: a temporary asylum residence permit is therefore granted and the decision will be noted in the formal decision. Rights and obligations of the refugee are listed in a fact sheet, which is available in several languages. The refugee may stay in the Netherlands for the time being. A temporary asylum residence permit is valid for 5 years.
- An asylum residence permit is not granted: An intended decision explaining the rejection of the application together with the interview report will be provided the same day (day 1). The applicant can discuss the interview report and the intended decision with his/her lawyer the next day (day 2). The lawyer may provide a written viewpoint to the intended decision and will inform the IND of this by letter. On the 3rd day or sooner the applicant will know the result of his/her application.
There are then 3 possible situations:
- The IND rejects the application. The applicant will not get a residence permit and will receive information about the possibility to appeal. If the IND rejects the repeated asylum application, the applicant has to leave the Netherlands. The decision sets out when he/she has to leave. She/he is not entitled to reception. And the IND imposes an entry ban on him/her. Both are set out in the decision of rejection. An entry ban means the rejected asylum seeker is not allowed to travel to the Netherlands and other European countries. Nor is he/she allowed to be there for the duration of the entry ban. The duration of the entry ban comes into effect once he/she leaves the Netherlands and all other European countries. It will be punishable if he/she does not abide by the entry ban.
- The applicant will get a temporary asylum residence permit.
- More research is
needed. The IND will then continue the application in another procedure. This
could be a Dublin procedure, the general asylum procedure (AA) or the
extended asylum procedure (VA). The applicant will receive more information on this in the registration centre (AC). He/she is entitled to reception during these procedures until the IND has decided on their application. He/she will receive an invitation letter from the IND. The invitation letter shows where he/she can report him/herself for reception the day before their appointment.
HASA applications: why are they not easy?
Repeated asylum applications are not easy procedures because new proofs (facts and circumstances) have to be put forward. Proper preparation for these matters is essential. Article 4: 6 of the General Administrative Law Act states that for a new application there must be new facts or circumstances that have changed; “Nova”. For asylum seeker, it is often anything but easy to put the necessary evidence on the table in the first procedure, because they have often fled from their normal lives. If it is later possible to obtain evidence, these are sometimes not recognized as novum because they already existed in the first interview (but they were not in the possession of the refugee at the time and could therefore not be submitted as evidence). Finding new evidence (such as documents, witness statements, or new circumstances) is almost always very difficult. If documents from the country of origin are needed, family members must be traced who often have fled or no longer live or live somewhere where there may even be no electricity. The Red Cross can assist in tracing family members, but this can take months to years and if this organization estimates that the search may endanger the family or employees of the Red Cross, the search will be stopped. Often the person involved also stops searching if it appears that people put him or her at risk, sometimes even disappear or are locked up. If relatives or acquaintances are found who are willing to search for documents, the question is whether this will work. Sometimes more documents must be requested from authorities that do not cooperate. Sometimes people have to travel for days on bad roads, for which money is needed first.
Sometimes asylum seekers manage to obtain a nationality declaration from their embassy, or to bring documents to the Netherlands or to obtain witness statements. But the IND does not always accept these, because it is not certain that they are genuine. That is another problem: how do you prove that they are real? It is sometimes possible to have an authenticity test done, but this costs a lot of money and also time. The IND also often asks that documents or statements be declared valid by the embassy. For example, an Eritrean person with proof of membership of an opposition party must go to the embassy. If he already dares, and if he is even received at all, a refusal often awaits him. The embassy does not do business with nationals who have applied for asylum elsewhere and certainly not with members of the opposition.
Bear in mind that in certain cases a HASA cannot be done on an addition basis, because the government no longer grants full compensation for these cases. In that case, an application for addition is waived and invoices must be used for payment. If an asylum seeker wants to know whether a new asylum application has a chance of success, a lawyer must first study their old file. Depending on that, the lawyer can then request the further documents from the asylum seeker or his/her previous lawyer.