Cabinet tells court it will not resume funding of shelter for undocumented migrants

The cabinet is sticking to its decision to stop funding the national shelter scheme for undocumented migrants, it argued at a hearing of the Raad van State, the Council of State, in The Hague. Lawyers for undocumented people, municipalities and aid organisations told the court that the minister is violating the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) by not providing shelter to this group.

The scheme, the Landelijke Vreemdelingenvoorziening (LVV), is known as bed-bad-brood (bed, bath and bread). Since 2019 five municipalities have provided 24-hour shelter under it: Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Groningen, Eindhoven and Utrecht. Since the national contribution ended, the cities often pay for the shelter themselves, supported by aid organisations.

The state's lawyer, defending asylum minister Van den Brink (CDA), denies the minister is breaching the convention. He said the national government does offer shelter at a state-run site in Ter Apel with limited freedom of movement (a vrijheidsbeperkende locatie), for people willing to cooperate with a return procedure. That location has 232 places and cannot be expanded in the short term. The lawyer also said all parties knew the LVV would end "at some point", so its end cannot be a surprise, and that it is up to undocumented people to register for Ter Apel.

Then-minister Faber (PVV) ended the funding from 1 January 2025. She wanted to focus on return to the country of origin rather than "subsidised shelter". Courts have since ruled against her. In May 2025 the Amsterdam district court found that 28 undocumented people had shown it was likely that they cannot provide bed, bath and bread for themselves, and that ending the shelter exposed them to a major risk of "inhuman or degrading treatment". The Rotterdam court later reached a similar ruling in a case brought by sixteen undocumented people.

The Protestant Church and Kerk in Actie recently called it "shameful that the state keeps campaigning against the bed, bath and bread scheme".

The Council of State is expected to rule in six weeks at the earliest. At the end of the hearing it warned that the ruling will probably take considerably longer.