The 18-year-old Angolan youth who faces deportation despite having lived in the Netherlands since 2003, made an emotional appeal to MPs to be allowed to stay on Monday.

On Tuesday, MPs will vote on whether Mauro Manuel, who has lived with the same foster family in Limburg since arriving here as an unaccompanied refugee aged 10, can stay.
‘Against my will I have become a symbol for all young, unaccompanied asylum seekers in the Netherlands,’ the statement quoted by the Volkskrant said. ‘I would rather be a symbol of integration into Dutch society.’
‘I was put on a plane completely by myself when I was nine years old. I was very sad and frightened. How could I trust anyone? Why was I sent away? Happily I came to live with good people who are now my mother and father…’
Football
‘I want to celebrate Queen’s Day every year and, as a footballer myself, I want the Dutch team to be champions,’ Mauro, whose birth mother is still alive in Angola, continues.
In the statement he thanks MPs for their support and hopes that they will be able to persuade their colleagues to vote in his favour.
Editors note: it later transpired this statement was not written by Mauro but by someone at Defence for Children, who claim to have based it on an earlier letter written by him.
The Christian Democratic party, which first supported Mauro and later changed its mind following pressure from immigration minister Gerd Leers, holds the key to his future. At least two CDA MPs believe the party should support the youth.

Majority
However, even if they vote in his favour, the fundamentalist Christian group SGP is likely to support the government line, meaning there will be a slim majority in favour of deportation.
On Saturday, the CDA congress voted to fight for a more ‘humane’ policy on young refugees, but party leaders stressed this is future strategy and has no relevance for Mauro’s particular case.
Several opinion polls show a majority of the population believes the boy should be allowed to stay. Meanwhile, support for the CDA has slumped to an all-time low.
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