No change on child refugee amnesty, says Dutch prime minister
Dutch NewsThe government has no intention of changing the current rules for granting residency permits to refugee children who are well-rooted in the Netherlands but do not meet normal requirements, prime minister Mark Rutte said on Monday. The case of Lili and Howick, two children who were set for deportation to Armenia on Saturday but allowed to stay by junior justice minister Mark Harbers at the last minute, is a ‘unique case and a unique decision’, Rutte told reporters on Monday. Petition Politicians and celebrities have been urging the government to rethink its child refugee amnesty because of the overly strict rules and over 100,000 people have so far signed a petition calling for change. The Supreme Court ruled last month that there was no legal reason to keep Lili and Howick in the Netherlands because Armenia is a safe country and agreements had been made to make sure the children ‘did not end up on the street’