Netherlands introduces strict asylum plans with enhanced border checks

The far-right-led Dutch government announced a raft of tough new asylum measures Friday including the introduction of border checks and declaring parts of war-torn Syria as "safe areas".

Following days of intensive talks by a ruling four-party coalition, helmed by anti-immigration firebrand Geert Wilders' far-right Freedom Party (PVV), Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof laid out the cabinet's plans at a press conference.

The hardened measures include border checks -- similar to those in Germany -- scrapping indefinite residency permits for refugees and reducing the current five-year refugee permit to three years "in line with nearby countries".

"Our talks have finally concluded with a very solid result," Schoof told journalists in a weekly address.

"Today we have a comprehensive package of measures to implement our asylum policy quicker, and make it stricter and more streamlined," the premier said.

The government's Syria policy will be "significantly tightened" with parts of it being declared as "safe" this year, he added.

That meant that asylum seekers from so-called "safe" areas could be sent back and those already in possession of a Dutch residency permit "could be considered" for return.

But the government back-peddled on Wilders's wish to declare an "asylum crisis" in the Netherlands, which would have triggered emergency legislation allowing the cabinet to bypass parliament.

That plan was opposed by the New Social Contract party, a junior coalition partner whose support is essential for Schoof's current government.

"The political reality was changing and there was a real risk that the emergency legislation would not have passed," Schoof said.

The new measures will now have to get the thumbs up from both the lower and upper houses of the Hague-based parliament.

Friday's announcement of the plans is in line with a general call by EU leaders last week for urgent new legislation to increase and speed up migrant returns, with the bloc's rhetoric taking a rightward turn.

Leaders at a Brussels summit said the talks had focused on discussions about migration -- an issue that has shot up the political agenda following hard-right gains in several countries including the Netherlands.

Wilders's PVV scored a major victory in elections last year and the veteran anti-Islam lawmaker has promised "the strictest migration policy ever" to tackle what he termed the country's "asylum crisis".

Details of the new plan leaked out earlier in the week, with both opposition parties and rights groups slamming the suggestions.