The Dutch Senate (Eerste Kamer) passed two bills from Asylum and Migration Minister Van den Brink on 13 October 2026. Both were votes by party group.

  • Wet terugkeer en vreemdelingenbewaring (34.309): for: PRO, ChristenUnie, CDA, SGP, D66, FVD, VVD, PVV, JA21, BBB, 50PLUS, OPNL and three single-member groups. Against: Volt, SP, PvdD and Fractie-Visseren-Hamakers.
  • Novelle (35.501): the same, except that PRO and OPNL voted against.

What changes

  • Penalty payments end. A House amendment added to the novelle abolishes the dwangsommen, the penalty payments a court can order the IND to pay when it doesn’t decide an asylum application on time. The same amendment had been in the emergency asylum measures bill that the Senate rejected in April.
  • Detention regime. Immigration detention gets its own administrative-law framework, separate from criminal custody. Alternatives such as reporting duties and bail-type security are written into the Aliens Act, and detention is to be a last resort.
  • Lockdown power. A detention centre director can impose a lockdown in serious order or safety problems, confining detainees to cells 23 hours a day.
  • Undesirability declarations can be imposed on people covered by the EU Return Directive.
Er zijn 230 ‘beroepen niet tijdig beslist’ per werkdag ingediend in het afgelopen jaar. (230 “not decided on time” appeals were filed per working day over the past year.) — Minister Van den Brink, Eerste Kamer, 13 October 2026

In the debate, Volt (speaking also for Fractie-Visseren-Hamakers) cited the Council of State’s view that Dutch law conflicts with the EU Charter if the penalty payments are removed without an alternative. Supporters including VVD, PVV, JA21, BBB and SGP said the money is better spent on IND capacity. D66 noted that detention can be extended to 24 months, or 30 in exceptional cases.

Citizen impact: Dutch taxpayers stop paying penalties to asylum applicants whose cases run late. Applicants lose that lever over the IND, which the minister says has a large and long-running backlog. Expect court challenges on EU-law grounds.

What this piece refuses

The Senate summary gives no in-force date, and we give none. We do not put a euro figure on the penalties, because the source contains none. Party positions are as recorded in the Senate’s vote record, not our characterisation.

Bottom line

The Eerste Kamer has passed the return-and-detention law. It ends court-ordered penalty payments on the IND for late asylum decisions and sets a new detention regime with a 23-hour lockdown power.