Doctors, church organisations and private individuals who help illegal immigrants should not be considered to have committed a crime, a majority of MPs said on Tuesday.

The new government has pledged to make it a criminal offence to be an illegal immigrant, and this means people who help them could be accused of being an accessory.
But MPs, including the governing CDA, have asked immigration minister Gerd Leers to make sure people who help illegal immigrants for humanitarian reasons do not face prosecution.
The government hopes that criminalising illegality will make it easier to deport trouble-makers.