Holland’s four biggest cities are calling on the government to give rejected asylum seekers who are ill short stay medical care so they can be repatriated sooner.

Psychological problems now often make it hard to expel refugees whose asylum requests have been turned down, the cities of Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Utrecht and The Hague write in an open letter.

Rejected refugees could be expelled faster, they argue, if they receive the medical attention they need under a scheme involving health care providers, the Immigration and Naturalisation Service, the Return and Departure Service and social aid groups.

In the letter, the four major cities urge Immigration and Asylum Minister Gerd Leers to involve them in the government’s aliens policy making. The minister recently informed the Association of Dutch Municipalities that mayors are not authorised to evict rejected asylum seekers from their accommodations. That is the sole responsibility of the asylum and the justice and security minister, Mr Leers stressed.

(cl)

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