Dutch government must meet cost of refugees' psychiatric care

The cost of long term psychiatric care for illegal residents in the Netherlands should be met by the state and not by a psychiatric hospital treating them, according to a legal test case.

A court in the Hague ruled that, although psychiatric hospitals had an obligation to provide such care, they did not receive adequate reimbursement for the treatment and therefore “suffered disproportionate damage.” A substantial number of the illegal (and therefore uninsured) patients were being treated under the law on compulsory admissions.

The Bavo RNO foundation, which provides psychiatric care in Rotterdam, brought the civil action against …