The Labour Party and the Christian Union have submitted a bill which would give underage asylum seekers who have lived in the Netherlands for eight years the right to stay on condition they were never here illegally and neither they nor their parents ever frustrated the asylum procedure.

Christian Union MP Joël Voordewind says the law is intended to prevent poignant cases in which teenagers who have grown up in the Netherlands are forced to ‘return’ to countries with alien cultures they have no ties with. “The rights of the child are more important than procedural considerations,” the politician said.

(gsh)

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