Asylum claims down by nearly half in 2016

The number of asylum seekers arriving in the Netherlands almost halved in 2016 – but family reunions increased in relative terms, new figures from the immigration service show. New asylum seekers accounted for 18,170 of all applications, while 11,810 came from relatives of refugees who were already in the Netherlands. The repatriation service Dienst Terugkeer en Vertrek recorded 17,000 departures by failed asylum seekers, 47% of whom are supposed to have the country independently and unsupervised. However, the whereabouts of 240 refugees with a criminal record who were supposed to leave the country is unknown, service director Jannita Robberse said at the presentation of the report.