Hilversum mayor Ernst Bakker has refused to hand over a list of the asylum seekers who are not eligible for the recently granted general pardon to the justice minister. In an interview with today’s Volkskrant, Bakker says he sees such a move as a ‘betrayal’.

‘An illegal [asylum-seeker] who talks to a mayor to see if he or she can qualify for a residence permit should be able to speak in confidence. I think it’s strange that I should be expected to report him and that he is extradited if it emerges during this conversation that he does not fulfil the criteria. Surely that’s not something you do,’ Bakker told the paper.
Mayors do not have to give her information about asylum seekers but she does expect them to do so, said junior justice minister Nebahat Albayrak earlier this week.
The mayor of Groningen, Jacques Wallage, has called on his colleagues to work with the minister saying there is ‘no reason to refuse’ passing on information about asylum seekers. ‘We have been given a very royal amnesty by this minister and she has given mayors an important role in carrying this out’.
The amnesty for long-term asylum seekers whose application to stay in the Netherlands was refused was introduced on June 15.