IRCT REGIONAL REPORT 2016 Demonstration “Refugees welcome, racism not” to protest against racism and islamophobia. A lady holds a sign saying love is stronger than hate. © Janossy Gergely Torture victims are able to request and receive MLRs and according to Dutch law, the IND must request the medico-legal evaluation if it deems it necessary to support the applicant’s asylum case. The IND will ask an independent third party to carry out these medical examinations and will bear the cost of that evaluation. However, if the asylum seeker is of the opinion that they need an evaluation, but the IND disagrees, the asylum seeker must bear the cost. This unfortunately creates an incentive for the IND to limit referrals for medico-legal evaluations. In theory, there is no separate procedure to process asylum claims more quickly in the Netherlands. However, a decision is made on all asylum cases within eight days, with a possible extension of six days. There have been concerns that the eight-day procedure is inadequate for the asylum seeker to be able to present all relevant information concerning their case including claims of torture and ill-treatment.17 In practice there are no special reception conditions for torture victims as they are kept in the same facilities as all other asylum seekers. There are various issues relating to material reception conditions, which make it difficult to guarantee mental health for torture victims. Many reception facilities are overcrowded and lack privacy, which has a negative impact on the mental wellbeing of torture victims. Finally, the vast majority of asylum seekers do not have access to the labour market due to formal restrictions on the right to work and informal barriers. RvA NL’s says this makes it difficult for some of their clients to begin to have more structure and normalcy in their lives. “A big problem noted by our clients are the police raids that occur in many of these facilities on a regular basis. This is very disconcerting for torture victims, who are at risk of being re-traumatised by witnessing armed police officers storming the premises.” – Boris Drozdek page 34