Utrecht city council must find accommodation for a rejected asylum seekers and her three-year-old child for the next six weeks, the city court said on Thursday in a preliminary ruling.

Although the ruling is a slap on the wrist for the council, in practice it welcomes the court´s decision, Trouw says. This is because the ruling gives legal support to the campaign against the compulsory closure of emergency shelters for failed asylum seekers who cannot be deported.
As part of a general amnesty for long-term asylum seekers in 2007, the government ordered local authorities to close down their emergency hostels. But this has lead to a surge in homelessness among people who have lost their right to stay in the country but cannot or will not return home.
At the end of February, the European Committee on Social Rights said the Netherlands must stop evicting families with young children from asylum seekers centres because this conflicted with the European social charter and other human rights legislation.