Amsterdam youth threatened with deportation is released from jail
The Amsterdam youth threatened with deportation after discovering he was not Dutch has been released from prison pending a new application for a residency permit.
Daniël Buter, 19, was picked up by the immigration service IND last month and has been held in Rotterdam since then.
He is being released while his new legal team apply again for a residency permit for the youngster. ‘Wrong legal choices have been made in the past,’ his new lawyer Maartje Terpstra told RTL Nieuws.
The IND planned to deport him to the Dominican Republic, where his parents come from, but where he has never lived. His parents left the boy with his grandparents when he was three and they have raised him since then.
More facts have since emerged about Buter’s case. He first discovered he was not Dutch at the age of 16, when he applied for a passport so he could register for college. His grandparents have Dutch nationality as had his mother, but he lost the claim to be Dutch when his mother gave up her Dutch passport.
He has since made two applications for a residency permit, both of which were rejected, although it is unclear why.
He was picked up by the IND after failing to attend a meeting with officials to discuss his ‘voluntary return’.
Nearly 30,000 people signed a petition calling for Buter to be allowed out of jail, and Amsterdam’s mayor Femke Halsema had also pledged to intervene.
Thank you for donating to DutchNews.nl.
We could not provide the Dutch News service, and keep it free of charge, without the generous support of our readers. Your donations allow us to report on issues you tell us matter, and provide you with a summary of the most important Dutch news each day.
Make a donation