Netherlands asylum applications at record low following Assad ouster

The Netherlands saw record low asylum applications in the first quarter of this year, largely attributed to the fall of Syria’s Assad regime in December, official data showed on Wednesday.

In the first quarter of 2025, over 4,500 individuals of various nationalities applied for asylum in the Netherlands, plummeting 37 per cent from the previous quarter and approximately half the number compared with the same period last year, as reported by NL Times, citing Statistics Netherlands.

Syrian nationals still made up the largest group of asylum applicants during this period, accounting for 21 per cent of the total. However, their numbers have declined sharply since the ouster of Assad regime. Only 900 Syrians applied for asylum in the first quarter, marking a 68 per cent drop from the same period in 2024, when over 2,900 Syrians sought refuge in the country.

More than two-thirds of asylum seekers were men, and three-quarters were under the age of 35. Additionally, a quarter of the applicants were children, according to Statistics Netherlands.

Conversely, the number of family reunification applications rose 14 per cent to 3,700 in the first quarter compared with a year earlier. Over 81 per cent of these requests originated from Syrian nationals.

Bashar Al-Assad, Syria’s leader for nearly 25 years, fled to Russia on 8 December, ending the of the Baath Party regime which had been in power since 1963.

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