IND awards amnesty to 12,600 illegals to date
The Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) has to date informed 12,600 illegal immigrants that they are allowed to stay in the Netherlands. Some 650 others have been told they are not eligible for the amnesty, Justice State Secretary Nebahat Albayrak stated in a letter to parliament yesterday.
The pardon scheme, which came into effect on 15 June, applies to people who made their first asylum application before 1 April 2001. They have to have lived uninterruptedly in the Netherlands since. They are allowed to have lied once about their identity or land of origin and to have a maximum criminal record of one month’s jail sentence.
The cabinet expects between 25,000-30,000 people ultimately to come under the amnesty. The IND has now given a positive assessment on the files of around 12,600. This figure will rise further, partly because from October, mayors will put forward aliens they consider also eligible for the scheme.
Albayrak has given mayors individual authority to bring up illegals who have remained in informal care, as a result of which they have disappeared out of the IND files. Formally, they do not therefore meet the criteria for the scheme, but Albayrak has told the IND to take statements by the mayors into account in its assessments.
The group of around 650 to date rejected for the amnesty includes war criminals and other serious criminals and people who have lied repeatedly about their identity or have not lived uninterruptedly in the Netherlands. Albayrak says they will be asked to leave the Netherlands voluntarily and if they do not, forced deportation will follow.
In the case of war criminals, however, deportation is not likely to be possible. Because they could be in danger in their own country, the Netherlands can do nothing other than allow them to stay in the Netherlands illegally, based on international human rights treaties. This happened earlier with the Philippine communist leader Sison, who has been tolerated in the Netherlands since 1987 and was arrested this week for ordering two murders in the Philippines.
Albayrak says there is no indication whatever that the asylum lawyers industry is trying to bring as many departed aliens as possible back to the Netherlands in an attempt to come under the pardon. The Party for Freedom (PVV) had sounded the alarm on this.
Source: NIS News, 30 August 2007
and i went...
