A police car was set alight and extensive damage to property was registered during an anti-immigration protest in The Hague, the Netherlands, on Saturday. More than 30 people were reportedly arrested, and at least 11 people injured. Police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowds, ahead of elections at the end of October.
What happened?
More than 1,500 protestors took part in the demonstrations on Saturday (September 20) in the Dutch city of The Hague. A police car was set alight, the windows of the offices of the left-wing D66 party were smashed and Dutch police fired tear gas and a water cannon into the crowd after parts of the demonstration turned violent, and stones, bottles and fireworks were thrown.
According to the newspaper Algemeen Dagblad (AD), at least four police officers and as many as seven journalists were reportedly injured.
The protest was organized by a right-wing activist known online as "Els Rechts," who is demanding tougher migration policies from the country’s government.
Attacks on political parties and journalists
D66 leader Rob Jetten told the media that the damage was extensive and called on protesters to "stay away from political parties." Writing on X, Jetten said: "If you think you can intimidate us, tough luck. We will never let extremist rioters take away our beautiful country."
Members of the government, as well as Wilders himself, condemned the violence. On X, Wilders called the protesters "idiots" and said that violence against the police was "totally unacceptable."
The organizer of the protest wrote on X that if she had known that it would turn violent, she wouldn’t have called for the protest to begin with.
Dutch Justice Minister Foort van Oosten from the VVD party commented that although demonstrations were an important right, the protesters should not attack politicians.
A spokesperson for the Dutch police Union ACP told the right-leaning Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf that officers were just "a millimeter" from being forced to draw their weapons during the demonstration, because they felt so under threat.
Patrick Fluyt, ACP’s spokesperson, said that officers should be equipped with "marking" ammunition, bullets that fire colors but can also cause injury and sometimes even death. Fluyt described the ammunition as a measure between batons and bullets.
Elections looming
The Netherlands is in a political state of flux at the moment; right-wing leader Geert Wilders pulled his party (Party for Freedom, PVV) out of the ruling coalition at the beginning of June following a row over migration. Wilders had won the greatest single share of the votes in the last election (in 2023) but had failed to form a coalition with him as leader.
Instead, he was forced to join a larger coalition, which lasted just 11 months before it collapsed. At the time, Wilders wrote on X that he was disappointed that the coalition had not managed to sign off on his party’s asylum plans.
Wilders had been trying to convince the coalition to sign off on ten additional asylum measures, including a freeze on applications, halting the construction of reception centers and limiting family reunification. Wilders also called for expanding deportation measures, including for Syrian nationals.
Prime Minister Dick Schoof then called fresh elections, setting them for October 29 this year. Until Wilders’ exit, the coalition had been made up of the PVV, joining a government for the first time in its 18-year history, as well as the conservative-liberal party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), the centrist New Social Contract (NSC) and the agrarian-populist Farmer Citizen Movement (BBB).
On taking office, the coalition had promised to drastically reduce immigration and implement a strict asylum policy, but constitutional and legal restrictions hampered some of Wilders' bolder plans.
Read AlsoNetherlands: Dutch government seeks opt-out from EU's asylum rules
Protesters call for tougher asylum policies and more affordable housing
Many of the protesters on Saturday waved Dutch flags, or those associated with groups further right, including the so-called "Prince Flag," an orange, white and blue flag that was previously used by the Dutch National-Socialist movement NSB, and is still deployed by right-wing extremists. Many were dressed in black, some with their faces covered.
Protesters not only called for stricter migration policies but also for more affordable housing for the Netherlands overall.
Affordable accommodation is in short supply in the Netherlands, both for Dutch residents and those needing housing while waiting for their asylum process to either begin or be completed.
Read AlsoNetherlands ends housing support for rejected asylum seekers
Long waits for processing
According to the Dutch Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND), whose last update was in July this year, family reunification applicants are waiting for a long time for a decision on their cases. For instance, for families trying to bring biological children under 18 to the Netherlands, those who put in an application in August 2023 will be waiting more than two years, until September 2025, for the IND to begin their application.
However, for those who filed an application in May 2024, the IND predicts that they will begin processing the application in October this year. For those attempting a family reunification for family members not under the age of 18, waiting times are even longer, two years and two months for those who applied in July 2023, and two and a half years for those who applied in April 2024. For that category of person, the IND calculates they will begin the application process in October 2026.
For someone who filed an application in August this year, the IND calculates that applicants will wait until June 2028 before the application process begins.
Average asylum waiting times are also fairly long. For those waiting for a decision on a Dublin case, IND calculates at least seven weeks of waiting before an interview with the IND. For a general asylum procedure, an applicant might have to wait 11 weeks for the first interview, and 79 weeks for a second interview.
The IND began making decisions on Syrian asylum applicants in mid-June this year again, after pausing for six months following the fall of former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad. Now, Syrians who can prove they may be at risk under the new interim government, for instance LGBTIQ+ members and Alawites, might still gain protection, but the Dutch government judges that for others the situation is now “less dangerous” in Syria. However, they will only begin reassessing those who currently have protection from January 2026, when they believe the situation will become clearer.
Read AlsoNetherlands starts processing Syrian asylum cases once more
The COA Central Organ for Asylum Seekers runs around 300 reception centers for asylum seekers in the Netherlands. The Central one is located in Ter Appel, where people have to go to report and will be housed for between three and ten days of shelter. Once they have had a medical check, they might be moved on to other more adapted centers, dependent on their needs.
Most adult asylum seekers will stay at a reception center (AZC) until they are allocated accommodation in a municipality. In the centers, residents get a food and living allowance and they are able to cook their own meals. There are also activities and programs on offer to asylum seekers, states COA.
In 2024, the Netherlands received 3.3 percent of all asylum applications in the EU+. Per capita, it ranked 14th, with applications measured per one million inhabitants. The majority of asylum applicants were Syrian (35 percent), according to EUAA figures.