The Dutch deportation system is failing, the number of deportees is falling and the amnesty for child refugees is making things worse, according to reprt by the deportation service.

The report by the CITT, the independent body in charge of supervising deportation policy, is due for publication later this week and has been leaked to the Telegraaf.

‘After six years of this policy it is clear that the current state of affairs is making deportation virtually impossible to achieve for all those involved in carrying it out,’ the Telegraaf quotes the report as saying.

Flights

The CITT, which reports to junior justice minister Fred Teeven, refers, among other things, to the large number of deportation flights which are being cancelled.

There is also a warning that softening the rules on immigrants being held in deportation centres, which is being brought in by Teeven under pressure from his Labour party coalition partners, will have an adverse effect.

Immigrants facing deportation will have to be given 48 hours warning which, the report says, gives deportees enough time to disappear.

Children

The report is also critical of the child amnesty, under which children who have lived in the Netherlands for more than five years under state supervision are allowed to remain in the country.

The CITT says this amnesty will lead to other families who do not fall into this category refusing to be deported willingly.

However, in general the treatment of immigrants is humane, the Telegraaf quotes the report as saying.