Never give enemy combatants their stripped passports back: ruling parties

The VVD and CDA want to amend the Passport Act to make sure that people whose Dutch nationality was stripped because they joined a terrorist organization can not get a new passport from the Dutch government. "This is another step to prevent these people from returning to the Netherlands and making our country unsafe," VVD parliamentarian Dilan Yeşilgöz said, RTL Nieuws reports.

Currently the Minister of Justice and Security has the option of canceling a passport or withdrawing Dutch nationality from people who joined terrorist organizations - even if they have not yet been convicted by a court. But last year Justice Minister Ferdinand Grapperhaus said that it is not always possible to take the passport off Dutch people in the ISIS combat zone in Syria and Iraq. 

This addition to the Passport Act, proposed by Yeşilgöz along with CDA MP Madeleine van Toorenburg, must ensure that passport applications from Dutch jihadists can be refused. "There is a list of [Dutch rebel fighters in the Syrian civil war]. If those people report to an embassy, I want us to be able to say: you will not get a passport and no consular assistance."

Whether this amendment will receive sufficient support in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament, remains to be seen. It must first be checked whether the amendment would violate any international treaties.