Dutch Court Orders Disability Benefits Restored for Man Expelled to Morocco in 2006
Expelled to Morocco in 2006, a man was denied nearly four and a half years of disability benefits by the Dutch administration, which questioned whether he had lived in the Kingdom. Twenty years later, the courts have ruled in his favor and awarded him 3,500 euros in compensation.
The Netherlands had sent him back to Morocco itself. Yet when he asked for his disability benefits to be reinstated, the Dutch administration required him to prove that he had actually lived in the Kingdom after his expulsion. The man thus found himself embroiled in a lengthy battle with the UWV, the body responsible for social insurance in the Netherlands. In a ruling issued on September 24, 2026, the Centrale Raad van Beroep, the Netherlands’ highest court for social security matters, has now ruled in his favor.
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The case dates back to September 9, 2006. After a period in detention, the man was declared unwelcome in the Netherlands and then deported to Morocco. He had previously received WAO disability benefits, which were suspended in September 2003 because of his detention.
Once in Morocco, he applied to have his benefits reinstated. His then-wife and his lawyer sent letters to the UWV as early as 2006. But the agency did not issue a decision until April 2019, when it finally agreed to restore the benefits retroactively from February 23, 2011. This left nearly four and a half years of benefits excluded.
To justify that date, the UWV said it did not have enough evidence to establish that the man had actually lived in Morocco between September 2006 and February 2011. The agency also argued that he had not applied to have his benefits reinstated until 2011.
Twelve Moroccan witnesses and a disputed certificate
The man made repeated efforts to prove that he had indeed been living in Morocco. In July 2020, he obtained a local administrative certificate confirming his residence. But the UWV disputed its validity, even pointing to spelling mistakes and errors in the document.
The Dutch embassy in Morocco was then asked to look into the matter. In April 2024, its social affairs attaché confirmed that the certificate had indeed been issued by a mokaddem, a representative of the local authority. However, he noted that the document was based on the man’s statements, without any check that he was actually present at the residence.
The case took a new turn in April 2026. The man submitted his old Moroccan passport, medical documents from 2007, bank statements, and a notarized deed recording statements from twelve people. He also provided statements from his children and evidence of his deportation issued by the Dutch and Moroccan authorities.
The evidence showed, among other things, that he owned a home in Morocco, had been treated there by a psychiatrist in 2007, and had remarried there on December 25, 2010.
Another document helped tip the balance. In 2013, the Dutch Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) had agreed to lift his entry ban. To obtain that decision, the man had to prove that he had spent five consecutive years outside the Netherlands. The Dutch authorities had deemed that evidence sufficient at the time.
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The Centrale Raad van Beroep ultimately found that the documents as a whole sufficiently established his presence in Morocco between September 9, 2006, and February 23, 2011. The judges also found the requests to reinstate the benefits sent by his wife and lawyer as early as 2006, dismissing the UWV’s second argument.
The court directly set September 9, 2006, as the date from which his benefits should be reinstated, overturning the decision that had set the date at February 2011. The man will therefore regain his entitlement to nearly four and a half additional years of benefits. The Dutch agency will have to determine the total amount.
Because the legal proceedings launched in 2019 lasted seven years and five months, the judges also awarded him 3,500 euros for exceeding the reasonable time limit, to be shared between the Dutch state and the UWV. Both will also have to cover 6,469 euros in legal costs, while the UWV must reimburse him 178 euros in court fees.
