By Baghdadhope
Last year the Dutch government granted a residence permit to foreigners arrived in the country before April 1, 2001 and whose asylum request had been rejected.
Last year the Dutch government granted a residence permit to foreigners arrived in the country before April 1, 2001 and whose asylum request had been rejected.
According to some right-wing parties that amnesty enabled 27,500 people to remain legally in the country, and created expectations in those who saw the Netherlands as a refuge from the problems from which they were running away so that requests for asylum increased from 7,102 in 2007 to 7,034 in 2008 with an estimate of 16,000 by the end of the year.
For these reasons early in September those same parties asked the Secretary of State for Justice, Nebahat Albayrak to reduce the number of asylum seekers coming to the Netherlands. Following that demand the Secretary of State for Justice Albayrak discussed the possibility of repatriation of asylum seekers in the Netherlands with the Iraqi government that welcomed it, however subordinating it to a request for support for the reintegration of the refugees in Iraq.
Iraqi refugees seeking asylum in the Netherlands until now were automatically granted a temporary residence permit. Today, however, things began to change.
According to the Ministry of Justice, the Netherlands Government, based on information released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the improving security situation in Iraq, endorsed the proposal advanced by Albayrak for which any future request for asylum will be judged individually as already happens in Great Britain, Denmark and Sweden.
Even cases of applicants who already obtained a residence permit for a fixed period should be reviewed. The process, starting with the revocation of the permit, will give the asylum seekers the chance to plead their cases appealing to the decision to withdraw it and, in case of failure, to appeal to a higher degree of judgement with a proceeding that the same ministry affirms can last a long time and during which, in any case, the asylum seekers will remain on Dutch soil.
Edward Huizing, director of the Dutch aid to refugees Vluchtelingenwerk, opposing the measure because "the fact that the numbers of civilians killed per month is now of 500 instead of 700 does not mean that the situation in Iraq has actually improved" said to be convinced that the measure proposed by Nebahat Albayrak will not have major effects because the rule for which it is not possible to repatriate a person if there is a risk that he or she can be killed, tortured and persecuted remains in force.
In any case, according to the restrictive measure particular attention will be given to certain minority vulnerable groups such as Iraqi Christians, Mandaeans, Yezidis, Palestinians and homosexuals.
