1,500 refused amnesty so far
26 September 2007
Expatica News
THE HAGUE More than 1,500 asylum seekers who have exhausted the procedure have been informed since mid June that they are not eligible for amnesty, the Volkskrant reports. They do not satisfy the criteria, either because they are suspected of war crimes, have a criminal past, or have lied more than once about their identity.
This has emerged from a letter that state secretary for justice Nebahat Albayrak wrote to Parliament on Tuesday.
The Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) has informed about 15,000 people so far that they are eligible for a residence permit on grounds of the amnesty arrangement. About 11,000 of them have accepted the offer.
A spokesperson for the justice department said that the implementation of the amnesty is on schedule. The initial estimate, that between 25,000 and 30,000 people would make use of the arrangement, remains in place. “We have no indications that that has changed.”
Anyone eligible for a residence permit must drop all ongoing legal procedures against previous decisions. About 10,000 cases have been dropped in the meantime.
