Local responses to the refugee crisis in the Netherlands Reception and integration

NIEM Analyses 2016

From the early 2000s until 2013 asylum requests in the Netherlands averaged between 10,000 to 20,000 applications annually. In recent years, however, the number of asylum applications has increased substantially; in 2014 almost 30,000 requests (first and follow up applications) for asylum were made and in 2015 a record high number of almost 60,000 applications were made. In the mid 1990’s the Netherlands also received significant numbers of asylum seekers, with more than 50,000 applications in 1995 of whom many came from former Yugoslavia. In 2015, most first asylum applications in the Netherlands were from Syrians (40%) and Eritreans (17%). For Syria, the number of applications more than doubled from 8,750 to 18,675 applications (first asylum applications). Other countries with a sharp increase of applications are Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Albania and Ukraine.