Figures ‘irrelevant’ in immigration debate, says minister

There is no point in calculating the effect of government efforts to cut immigration on the actual number of non-westerners arriving in the Netherlands, immigration minister Gerd Leers told a television show on Monday night.

Definitive figures are irrelevant because immigration is always affected by outside events, the minister said.
The anti-Islam PVV has made its support for the minority coalition dependent on a 50% reduction in the number of non-western immigrants.
The Volkskrant reported at the weekend that this figure was far from being achieved.