An 18-year-old Angolan youth, who came to the Netherlands as an unaccompanied refugee in 2003, must return to his home country, immigration minister Gerd Leers said on Wednesday.

Leers had promised to look again at the case of Mauro Manuel following widespread protests about his impending deportation.
Leers told MPs there are more cases like that of Mauro, and he cannot therefore make an exception.
Student
Earlier reports he had offered the youth a student’s visa proved to be premature. In order to obtain a special visa to study, Mauro will first have to go back to Angola and prove he cannot take a similar course there. He is currently attending an mbo vocational college.
Although Christian Democrat MPs earlier supported allowing the youth to stay, the party now appears to be divided.
The party’s immigration spokesman Raymond Knops has sided with the minister, but dissident MP Kathleen Ferrier has called for a special meeting of CDA MPs to discuss the issue. MPs are due to debate the deportation on Thursday.

Family
Mauro has lived with the same foster family in Limburg since he was 10 but his position is complicated by the fact that his mother is still alive in Angola.
A spokesman for the children’s ombudsman told news agency ANP deporting Mauro would be in contravention of UN treaties on children’s rights.
‘We allow him to put down roots and study and now he is an adult, we deport him. That contravenes the rights of children and is inhumane,’ Marc Dullaert said. The decision to deport Mauro is ‘shocking’, the ombudsman said.
If MPs vote to deport the youth, Dullaert said he would take the issue to the European Court in Strasbourg.
Earlier this year, Leers ruled a 15-year-old girl should not be deported to Afghanistan because she had become too westernised.