Netherlands

The extensive use of detention for migrants and asylum-seekers, lack of safeguards in the asylum appeals procedure, and the lack of support for rejected asylum seekers who cannot be returned to their countries of origin are serious concerns. The European Committee of Social Rights has said the Dutch government is obligated to provide shelter, clothes, and food to irregular migrants at risk of destitution. The government backed away from a plan in 2014 to criminalize irregular stay. The law now allows transgender people from the age of 16 to change their gender on their identity papers without having to undergo sex reassignment surgery.