AKIPRESS.COM - With the inclusion of Mongolia in the Dutch list of safe countries of origin on February 12, Mongolian asylum seekers will now be considered ineligible for asylum to the Netherlands starting on March 1, and are expected to leave the country immediately, The UB Post reports.

The Dutch State Secretary of the Ministry of Security and Justice, Klaas Dijkhoff, announced that he added six jurisdictions to Netherland’s list of safe countries of origin on February 12: Ghana, India, Jamaica, Morocco, Mongolia, and Senegal. According to the website of the Government of the Netherlands, a country is deemed a safe country of origin if it is safe enough to return to, and if it does not carry out persecution on the grounds of race or religion, or apply torture or inhumane treatment.

Starting March 1, the applications of asylum seekers from safe countries of origin will be subject to an accelerated procedure which consists of a single hearing, and they will be rejected as unfounded. Applicants will be given the opportunity, however, to show why their country may be unsafe in their particular case. Applicants will have to “do more to make a plausible case for needing protection,” said Dijkhoff. Asylum seekers whose applications have been refused will no longer be entitled to accommodation and may not wait for the outcome of their appeal in the Netherlands, and must leave the country immediately.

In 2015, the Netherlands received 566 asylum requests from the six countries recently added to the list of safe countries of origin, 12 from India, 20 from Senegal, 23 from Ghana, 68 from Jamaica, 80 from Morocco, and 363 from Mongolia.