An Afghan Tajik family including a nine-year-old child who was born in the Netherlands has been given permanent residency permits by immigration minister Gerd Leers.

The Qadiri family hit the headlines in July when the mayor of Coevorden, where they live, ordered the local police not to cooperate with efforts to deport the family. His position was supported by the entire local council, who oppose the deportation on humanitarian grounds.
After that incident, Leers gave the family temporary right to stay on condition the parents worked to build up a new future in either Afghanistan or Tajikistan, where the mother comes from.
The family said it cannot return to Afghanistan because the mother is a Christian from Tajikistan and is not welcome there. The Afghan father, in turn, is not allowed to enter Tajikistan.