The immigration authority will look into the case of an Afghan man who acted as an intepreter for the Dutch army but is threatened with deportation after all, junior justice minister Fred Teeven said on Friday.

Abdhul Ghafoor Ahmadzai faces deportation to Norway where he first applied for asylum. Norway was planning to send him back to Afghanistan, where Ahmadzai said he feared for his life.

Teeven, who said earlier that working for the army was not sufficient grounds to be given a residency permit, told MPs he has been in touch with his Norwegian counterpart over the case.

He did not go into details with parliament about the change of heart or why the immigration service is now prepared to look at the case.

Earlier this week, Labour MPs blocked a parliamentary debate on Ahmadzai’s position, only to have its own change of heart a day later. Teeven’s decision to instruct the IND to examine the asylum claim makes that debate now redundant, the NRC says.