Angolan teenagers Gláucio (13) and Márcia (18) are to be allowed to stay in the Netherlands after all, the justice ministry confirmed on Monday evening.

Gláucio, who was born in the Netherlands and his sister Márcia, who is about to start a law degree at Erasmus University, were threatened with deportation because their father used to be a soldier in the Angolan army.

Under Dutch rules, this means he is considered to be a potential war criminal and is therefore ineligible for refugee status.

The teenagers and their mother will be released from the deportation centre on Monday evening. Their father has agreed to leave the country and will be deported on Friday, the ministry is quoted as saying.

The ministry said the children did not meet the criteria for the amnesty for well-integrated refugee children because of their father’s status but the family has agreed voluntarily to split up so the children and their mother can stay in the Netherlands.

The children’s ombudsman had condemned the decision to deport the children as ‘unacceptable’.