Junior justice minister Klaas Dijkhoff has used his powers of discretion to allow 240 refugees to stay in the country even though their earlier appeals had failed.

In the two years since he was appointed minister, Dijkhoff received 780 requests for clemency, making his approval rate 30%, the Telegraaf said on Thursday.

Ministers have the power to give residency permits to failed asylum seekers whose situation merits a licence to stay, even though they don’t qualify formally for refugee status.

Despite the VVD’s hard line on asylum, this means Dijkhoff was more generous than his predecessors, the paper said. Fred Teeven, also a VVD minister, approved one in four requests while the Labour and CDA ministers before him had an approval rate of 22%.

A spokesman for the justice minister said there is no specific reason why some ministers grant more appeals than others. ‘There is no comparison between the cases ministers are asked to rule on,’ a spokesman told the paper.