AMSTERDAM - In the first quarter of 2025, over 4,500 people applied for asylum in the Netherlands for the first time. That is 37 percent less than the previous quarter and a halving compared to a year earlier, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reported on Wednesday. The fall is largely due to fewer Syrians fleeing to the Netherlands since the fall of the Assad regime. Asylum Minister Marjolein Faber has yet to implement the PVV’s promised “strictest asylum policy ever.” 

People from Syria still formed the largest group of asylum seekers in the first quarter (21 percent of the total). Over 900 Syrians applied for asylum in the Netherlands, 68 percent less than the same period last year, when over 2,900 people from Syria fled to the Netherlands. 

The number of asylum seekers from Iraq and Yemen also fell sharply compared to a year ago. The number of applications from Iraqis fell from 1,200 in Q1 of 2024 to around 1,100 last quarter. The number of Yemeni applications was 85 lower than last year’s 470 applications. 

Turks formed the second-largest group of asylum seekers in the first quarter, with 325 applications from Turkish people. Eritreans followed with 235 asylum applications. The number of applications from these groups also decreased. 

Over two-thirds of asylum seekers in the first quarter were men, and three-quarters were under the age of 35. A quarter were children. 

The number of family reunification applications, in which people apply to join family members who already have residency in the Netherlands, increased by 14 percent to 3,700 in the first quarter, compared to a year earlier. Over 81 percent of family reunification requests came from Syria.