In November 2017 the Administrative Jurisdiction Division of the Council of State (AJD) has asked questions to the State Secretary about evidentiary issues in family reunification cases of Eritreans, who have received an asylum status in the Netherlands. The AJD asks the State Secretary to explain the current evidentiary policy in Eritrean family reunification cases and to refer to specific sources of country of origin information on which the policy is based, mentioning the finding places of these sources. The AJD also wants to know whether it can be expected of Eritreans who have received an asylum status in the Netherlands or third persons to contact the Eritrean authorities in order to obtain documents. The AJD asks the State Secretary to take into account the expert opinion of the Migration Law Clinic in his answers to these questions.

The State Secretary of Justice has sent a letter to Parliament about Eritrean family reunification cases on 23 November 2017. In this letter he announces that the Dutch evidentiary policy in those cases will be adapted. Indicative documents will sooner than before be included in the assessment of an application for family reunification. Before such documents could only be taken into account, if the applicant had made plausible that it was not his fault that he could not submit official documents proving identity and/or family ties (bewijsnood). Furthermore, the IND will offer a DNA test in more cases of families with minor (biological) children.