I wrote last week about my views on the coalition and the agreements to change the Dutch (nationality) law. Yesterday we gained some more insight into the political reasoning behind the so-called Coalition Agreement. A number of documents of confidential and secret correspondence crossed my desk, now quietly public. Mr R van Zwol, formateur, from the Cabinet Formation Office, sent x number of letters to various ministries. This also applies to Prime Minister Rutte with regard to the Secretary of State for Justice and Security.
The formation question:
“For which serious crimes can conviction lead to a) withdrawal/loss of Dutch nationality and/or b) withdrawal/loss of residence permit?”
Answers
See the question and answers (in Dutch) fully below. These documents were among other correspondence about climate, education, etc. Topics that were discussed during the coalition formation. At least we hope so. Because at least one politician reported that he/she was not aware of the so-called ban on dual/multiple nationality. If the politicians do not even make conscious decisions in the coalition about what they will and will not support??? The question of to what extent all parties really support this agreement, and whether this government and coalition may have a short life, is something that the future will tell.
Terrorism, serious crimes, lying or concealment during naturalisation,…
This was the focus of discussions within the coalition. In any case, we do not know whether further aspects of nationality law were discussed. I’ll get to that below.
It is clear that people do not want Dutch people who are terrorists or serious criminals. And that is very understandable. But these are still Dutch people who have quite a lot of rights in the procedures of withdrawing their nationality. Even the right to a judge. And in a state with justice that is understandable. After all, you want to take away someone’s nationality justly. Quite a drastic step. The old-fashioned feudal banishment of a subject. This means that people are separated from their country and from family and friends left behind. Please note that (innocent) minor children also become victims of the parent’s offense. After all, children often share in the loss of the parent’s nationality. Fortunately, not always, and these types of matters will probably also be considered in any court proceedings. Clearly, even the worst criminal, or the most heinous terrorist, is protected by rights and some degree of proportionality.
Terrorists and Criminals have more rights than the disappeared Dutch citizen.
In the previous coalition agreements (2017 and 2021), the parties agreed that Dutch legislation needed to be somewhat modernised. A 2016 proposal that is still on the table in the House of Representatives even talks about allowing multiple nationalities and a real repair of nationality method. Allowing multiple nationalities has been scientifically proven to benefit integration and even the economy. But with a right-wing party that does not realize (like the rest of the world) that a new Dutch citizen with a different nationality is more likely, or makes it practically more possible, to move back to the other country, this will not be an easy debate in the House of Representatives and Senate.
The disappeared Dutch citizen
The Dutch citizen has disappeared from the coalition table. After all, this is not mentioned in the agreement as in 2017 and 2021, and there appear to have been questions about this. Now we can hope that the Dutch have disappeared because they took this for granted and will modernize anyway. But if politicians in the parties concerned appear to know nothing about the disappeared Dutch citizen, then this is unlikely.
Disappeared Dutch citizens were often born and raised in the Netherlands, or born and partly raised, and in the modern world went to live, work, love, etc. elsewhere in the EU or outside the EU. Emigrants mainly. But not just migrants, no, also a small number who live in the Netherlands itself. These have had a different nationality since birth, or acquired this later. Some who live in the Netherlands are not always aware of their other nationality. Due to their different nationality, they can automatically lose their Dutch citizenship. This automatic loss is why there are thousands of Dutch people who have unintentionally and unconsciously lost their Dutch citizenship. Formally they are called the old-Dutchies, but they are often young people as well. Former Dutch nationals/citizens is a better term that should be used in legislation. These former Dutch people have therefore disappeared from the vision of the current coalition.
Less rights than a terrorist.
The average Dutch person who automatically loses nationality this way has no rights to any consideration. Was it unintentional, was it because of incorrect information from the government (still too common) or was it due to force majeure (during Covid, for example), the legislation does not allow this to be easily corrected. Repairing your Dutch nationality can be very difficult or even practically impossible.
Despite force majeure, errors, etc., you have no rights to repair your nationality / citizenship through the courts. The legislation is written in such a way that once nationality is automatically lost, you can only correct this with great difficulty. You may go to a judge, but he cannot do anything for you, except to confirm once again that automatic loss cannot be corrected by the judge. In fact, the judge can only do something for you if you are actually still Dutch according to the law and the government has not recognized this / has made a mistake (this also happens too often, unfortunately). The incorrect interpretation of (incomplete) evidence or legislation is something the judge can help with. But automatic loss of nationality cannot be reversed by a judge.
The automatic loss works through legislation and no Dutch authority or judge is involved, as is the case with a terrorist. And because there are no human considerations, one cannot successfully appeal against automatic loss. Proportionality or considerations are not part of automatic loss.
The numbers of terrorists deprived of their nationality because of their convictions are minimal. You can probably count them on one hand. The Public Prosecution reported in 2023 that they cannot verify/provide those numbers. The former Dutch through automatic loss number in the thousands. No formal numbers are known because this is not kept by CBS. Based on related information, the government itself estimates that this is around 2,000 per year. That is around 74,000 since 1985. So 74,000 people who have fewer rights to justice than a terrorist. Despite a change in the law in 2022 that will (temporarily) reduce the number of losses it still happens every day. Unfortunately still a large part of my work.
The bright spot of the European Union.
No considerations through an authority or judge were the situation until 2019/2020 when the Council of State accepted that the automatic loss of EU citizenship together with Dutch nationality is not always proportionate. And proportionality towards citizens is an EU agreement. By claiming EU rights, one could therefore expect proportionality via the IND or a court. At the time, the Council of State also advised the State Secretary of Justice that it was better that Dutch legislation should be adapted for all former Dutch citizens, and not just those who used, or wanted to use, their EU Free Movement rights during the loss. But the State Secretary ignored that advice at the time. They wanted to do as little as possible. The government does not really want to help this limited group either. It is not without reason that, according to a almost quiet IND report, only 4% are approved for this limited group. It is my opinion that the government (IND and Foreign Affairs) interpret the legislation in this way, and the State Secretary has made it this way, to make it extremely difficult to successfully use your rights to proportionality. An opinion shared by many. So they don’t want a former Dutch national back, as if you were a criminal.
Proportionality is therefore still missing. You shouldn’t have moved outside the Netherlands. It was your own fault. Attitudes.
We often hear that this is a problem for Dutch people abroad. And while that is largely the case, migration nowadays is little more than moving. Within the EU it usually happens without much notice. And even those who move outside the EU see it as nothing more than a (temporary) move for work, love, etc. According to the Dutch Statistics Bureau (CBS), a good number of migrants eventually return to the Netherlands (23% of immigrants are returning Dutch nationals 2010-2019 ). They were therefore not long-term or permanent emigrants as in the 19th century or the 1950s, but expats. Whatever title you give people, in the modern world we are much more likely to travel and we often do not spend our entire lives living in just one Dutch municipality or the country itself. The world has modernized, but our legislation has not yet, it still has the feudal principles of our first nationality legislation of 1893. Once you are gone, please stay away.
And yes, people who live in the Netherlands sometimes lose their nationality. That’s just a handful. But if you were born as a Dutch citizen in the Netherlands, grew up there and have always lived there, how can it be fair that you can automatically lose your nationality? My question to Prime Minister Rutte previously was, “Prove that you are still Dutch. Can you prove that?” I now ask that question to Mr Wilders and every other politician in this new coalition. Can you prove that you are still Dutch? And no, having an apparently valid Dutch passport is not sufficient according to our legislation.
Politicians, Coalition,… What next?
I have had conversations with politicians before, sometimes together with the Stichting GOED (Foundation). Politicians have also been frequently approached by several organizations such as Nederlanders in den Vreemde, the SNBN, etc. Before these elections we all once again pointed out the problems and the desired real and fair solutions. How can it be that there are still politicians in the Coalition who are unfamiliar with the matter?
I invite you to contact me and I would like to provide you with further explanation without any obligation. And if you are already somewhat familiar with the problem, why don’t we see a coalition planning to remove Automatic Loss from the legislation? And to allow multiple nationality? Don’t get lost in the somewhat related issues of immigration or refugees in the Netherlands. By only looking at those aspects you lose the overall picture of the legislation.
Understandable
The legislation has become so complex since 1893 that even the civil servants no longer know how it all works. I often encounter mistakes where citizens trusted that government officials should know the law better. The Foreign Affairs now even instructs their consular staff not to give advice to the public, the citizen, about nationality legislation. Reason: consular staff made too many mistakes with disastrous consequences for (former) citizens. In addition, many of the consular staff today are in fact little more than a quickly hired call center employee. Who are told as training to look at the general information on the websites. The most nonsensical official response I have seen so far is when a Dutch person made contact and declared that he did not want to lose his Dutch nationality and wanted to know whether loss can be prevented in his specific situation. The answer, “Once you have done that, you can apply for a (Dutch) passport and then we can see whether or not you are still Dutch! We cannot check this other than through a passport application.”
It is therefore understandable that politicians do not always understand how it all works. My request, therefore, is to make the legislation a lot simpler. And yes, changes in the law regarding terrorism can also be included. After all, no one wants an extremist terrorist in their own country. Me neither. But I would like to have some of those rights that a terrorist enjoys.
The (only?) coalition questions and answers regarding Nationality Legislation, Dutch Citizenship Law (RWN).
(Note that this does not, as far as I see, mention the already decided and upcoming 2027 RWN changes regarding terrorism and crime.)
