It would be unacceptable if three Somali men convicted of piracy were to be given refugee status in the Netherlands, according to VVD parliamentarians.

‘These troublemakers should be thrown out of the country as quickly as possible,’ MP Malik Azmani said. The pirates have been released from jail but will not be deported because their applications for asylum are still being processed.

The situation is too bizarre for words, Azmani said. ‘First you shoot at Dutch soldiers and then you request asylum here,’ he is quoted as saying. ‘It is unacceptable that these criminals want to remain here.’

The three are part of a group of nine Somali pirates jailed for 4.5 years in 2011 after going on trial in the Netherlands. Having served two-thirds of their sentence, they have now been released from jail.