whaha het is wereld nieuws dus... Nederland de zachtste 
bron : www.ninemsn.com.au (australische afdeling van MSN)
Dutch amnesty for 30,000 asylum seekers
Saturday May 26 21:37 AEST
Up to 30,000 asylum seekers will be allowed to stay in the Netherlands after the Dutch government announced an amnesty.
The pardon will apply to those who sought asylum in the Netherlands before April 2001, many of whom have been in the country for years appealing against expulsion.
An estimated 25,000 to 30,000 people who arrived in the country before immigration laws were tightened will qualify, junior justice and labour minister Nebat Albayrak told a press conference.
"The pardon means an end to the uncertainty, which lasted for many years and was way too long," she said.
Procedures are now quicker, and failed applicants will be deported faster, she said.
The pardon was agreed in principle in February as part of the coalition agreement of Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende's centrist government.
It marked an easing of policy in a country which has imposed some of Europe's toughest migration and integration laws since the rise of anti-immigration populist Pim Fortuyn, who was shot dead in 2002.
Balkenende's previous centre-right coalition with the liberal VVD, which included hard-line Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk, had opposed the pardon and said an amnesty could prompt a huge influx of asylum-seekers.
Balkenende reversed his position when he had to forge a coalition with the Labour Party and a small Protestant party, the Christian Union, after a parliamentary election in November.
Saturday May 26 21:37 AEST
Up to 30,000 asylum seekers will be allowed to stay in the Netherlands after the Dutch government announced an amnesty.
The pardon will apply to those who sought asylum in the Netherlands before April 2001, many of whom have been in the country for years appealing against expulsion.
An estimated 25,000 to 30,000 people who arrived in the country before immigration laws were tightened will qualify, junior justice and labour minister Nebat Albayrak told a press conference.
"The pardon means an end to the uncertainty, which lasted for many years and was way too long," she said.
Procedures are now quicker, and failed applicants will be deported faster, she said.
The pardon was agreed in principle in February as part of the coalition agreement of Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende's centrist government.
It marked an easing of policy in a country which has imposed some of Europe's toughest migration and integration laws since the rise of anti-immigration populist Pim Fortuyn, who was shot dead in 2002.
Balkenende's previous centre-right coalition with the liberal VVD, which included hard-line Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk, had opposed the pardon and said an amnesty could prompt a huge influx of asylum-seekers.
Balkenende reversed his position when he had to forge a coalition with the Labour Party and a small Protestant party, the Christian Union, after a parliamentary election in November.
bron : www.ninemsn.com.au (australische afdeling van MSN)
