Can refugees do volunteer work?

27 October 2025

Refugees are allowed to do volunteer work once their asylum application is officially being processed. At that point, they are asylum seekers. Organizations must stilla volunteer declaration at the UWV requests.

The groups that are not allowed to do volunteer work are:

foreigners waiting for a regular residence permit and who are not asylum seekers (e.g. labor migrants)
refugees whose procedure has not yet started
‘Undocumented’, migrants without a residence permit

Legal stayForeigners who reside legally in the Netherlands are allowed to do volunteer work. They must be able to prove this with a W-document, a residence permit ‘certain time asylum’ or ‘certain time regular’. It may also be the case that a foreigner is still awaiting a decision on a request for extension of continued stay. If this foreigner is not under threat of deportation, he/she may continue to do volunteer work.When are you an asylum seeker?Someone is considered an asylum seeker as soon as they have applied for asylum and their application is being processed. This person is therefore still awaiting a decision on the application for a residence permit or on an appeal against such a decision. An asylum seeker stays legally in the Netherlands.Volunteer permitFor foreigners who do not have access to our labor market but reside lawfully in the Netherlands, the organization must apply for a volunteer declaration or employment permit. This declaration is valid for a specific position for three years. Therefore, a declaration does not need to be requested for each individual.The organization must request this Volunteer Declaration.

InsuranceAll refugees, whether they are in the Netherlands legally or not, fall under theAmsterdam Volunteer Insuranceat the moment they are doing volunteer work, and only during its execution.Expense reimbursementRefugees are entitled to receive the same compensation as other volunteers.Read more about expense reimbursement for volunteers.