MPs hope to head off deportation of well-rooted refugee children

Labour and ChristenUnie MPs have drawn up legislation to give the children of asylum seekers the right to stay in the Netherlands after eight years – if the delay has been caused by government mistakes.

The MPs hope the plan will prevent children who have grown up in the Netherlands and have their roots here from being deported.
‘That would mean them going to a country they do not know, where they do not speak the language,’ said ChristenUnie MP Joel Voordewind.
The aim of the legislation is end the different treatment of girls and boys, depending on where they come from.
Sahar ruling
Earlier this year, immigration minister Gerd Leers said girls aged 10 to 18 could not be sent back to Afghanistan if they had lived in the Netherlands for at least eight years. This exception has become known as the Sahar ruling, after an Afghan teenager faced with deportation despite living here for 10 years.
‘This ruling does nothing for a boy from Somalia,’ Voordewind said.
The MPs say a maximum of 800 children would be affected.
Parliamentarians from the ruling VVD and CDA say they first want to read the draft legislation before commenting.