A Dutch Moroccan who is being stripped of his Dutch nationality because of his involvement in terrorism will go to court on Wednesday in an effort to have the immigration service decision reversed, the NRC reported on Tuesday.

Maher H, who is 24 and was born in the Netherlands, spend six months in Syria in 2014 and served two years in jail on his return. He was the first Dutch jihadi to be jailed.

After his release, he started a process of reintegration involving police, government officials, ex jihadis and social workers. Maher, who is now 24, had hoped to get a job or to start a college course, but found himself on the official terrorism list.

‘This meant I could not get a student loan or open a bank account. I could not study and I could not get a job,’ he told the NRC in an email interview. ‘No-one will work with you if you don’t have a bank account because then you have to explain why not.’

Nevertheless, the NRC said, Maher continued to work on his rehabilitation and in May 2017 he was told that he would be removed from the sanctions list. He wrote in for a college course.

At that moment, former justice minister Stef Blok announced he was withdrawing Maher’s Dutch nationality and he would have to move to Morocco. The decision was formalised mid 2018.

His lawyer Flip Schuller told the NRC the IND has refused to look at any of the official reports on him.  It is, Schuller said, ‘schizophrenic that the same government that made an enormous effort to reintegrate Maher and wants to deport him at the same time.’

Vulnerable

The NRC points out that a report by the justice ministry in 2017 warned that freezing bank accounts and stripping people of their nationality can work against the reintegration process. In addition, deporting them can make them more vulnerable to radicalisation by strengthening the feeling of injustice.

The mayors of the four big cities have also written to Grapperhaus calling for a rethink.

The UN special rapporteur on racism has said the decision to strip Maher of his Dutch nationality is ‘discriminatory’ and that finding will have to be taken into account by the Dutch court, the NRC said.

Broadcaster NOS said later on Tuesday that 15 people have been stripped of their Dutch nationality for taking part in armed jihad. Of them, five were in the Netherlands and 10 abroad, NOS said.