Overview

• The Dutch parliament’s Second Chamber approved two bills that criminalize illegal stay and assistance, shorten asylum permits from five to three years and impose strict family reunification limits.
• The reform package moves to the First Chamber for debate before the October general election, where its fate remains uncertain.
• Germany logged just 65,495 asylum applications in the first half of 2025, a 43 percent decline that dropped it to third place in the EU behind Spain and France.
• Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt’s stationary border checks and pushbacks, introduced in early May, have registered over 6,000 refusals but prompted only six legal challenges so far.
• EU-wide filings fell 23 percent to 388,299 in the same period, a trend driven by national reforms and expanded pacts with North African transit states.