Socialists want asylum-seekers debate

Some 2,000 failed asylum-seekers who left the Netherlands for even a short period in the last few years are not eligible for the general amnesty declared by the current government when it came into power, reports NRC.Next on Friday.


The paper describes the situation of a family with three children who were refused amnesty because they had spent a few months in Germany during their 15 years in the Netherlands.
The Socialist Party has asked integration minister Nebahat Albayrak for a debate on the issue.
Meanwhile Trouw reports that 1,600 asylum-seekers who had been refused a residency permit have nevertheless been allowed to stay in the Netherlands because of their desperate circumstances. The figures come from the justice department, the paper says.
The clemency followed a call in 2003 for asylum-seekers who had been turned down for a residency permit to come forward.
The immigration ministry received 15,000 letters as a result and these were looked at to see if there were exceptional cases for which clemency could be granted. The length of stay in the Netherlands, the level of integration and humanitarian reasons were the main factors taken into consideration, says Trouw.

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