It is "precisely the intention" that not many child asylum seekers qualify for the children's pardon, State Secretary Mark Harbers of Justice and Security said in a debate about Lili and Howick on Wednesday. The two Armenian kids were set to be deported on Saturday, after living in the Netherlands for 10 years, but got an exemption at the last minute, AD reports.
Mark Harbers
Sep 12 '18 10:50
The Amsterdam city council wants asylum children who've been living in the Netherlands for more than five years, to be able to stay in the country because this is now their home. The council called on Mayor Femke Halsema to ask State Secretary Mark Harbers of Justice and Security to implement a so-called children's pardon, Het Parool report.
Sep 10 '18 15:40
The government of Curacao is denying fleeing Venezuelans their international right to asylum, according to a report Amnesty International published on Monday. The human rights organization calls on the Netherlands to intervene, ANP reports.
Sep 10 '18 07:50
State Secretary Mark Harbers of Justice and Security received such serious threats regarding the deportation of two Armenian children, that he had to go into hiding last week, sources in The Hague told the Telegraaf.
Jul 5 '18 16:20
The Netherlands immigration service IND is making changes to the way they test asylum seekers' sexuality and religion. Currently the differences in cultures sometimes leads to mistakes being made, ANP reports.
Mar 30 '18 14:00
The Dutch government wants to send asylum seekers back to the country they first arrived in when they came to Europe, State Secretary Mark Harbers of Justice and Security, which also includes Asylum and Migration, said to the Volkskrant.
Harbers want all EU countries to implement this measure, so that traveling from country to country to find the best asylum possibilities becomes unattractive for asylum seekers. If he has his way, asylum seekers can only apply for asylum in the Netherlands if they entered the country via a port or airport.
Mar 8 '18 12:50
The European Union must do more to stop the undocumented migration of asylum seekers through Europe, State Secretary Mark Harbers wrote in a letter to the European Commission, the Telegraaf reports.
The government considers it a major problem that asylum seekers can freely travel virtually anywhere through Europe to get to the country where they want to apply for asylum. Because of this, the Netherlands is getting a disproportionate number of asylum seekers, Harbers said to the newspaper.
Feb 1 '18 15:10
The presence of an asylum center has no measurable effect on safety and crime in a neighborhood, scientific research and documentation center WODC concludes in a study done on behalf of the Ministry of Justice and Security. State Secretary Mark Harbers sent the results to the Tweede Kamer, NOS reports.
Dec 13 '17 09:22
The Dutch immigration and naturalization service IND received a document from the Dutch embassy in Rwanda that may prove that a Rwandan refugee who received Dutch nationality in 2006 was involved in genocide in his home country in 1994. State Secretary Mark Harbers of Justice and Security is working on revoking the man's Dutch nationality, AD reports.
The man in question, 62-year-old Jean-Baptiste N., came to the Netherlands as an asylum seeker in 1999. He received Dutch nationality in 2006. He's been living and working in the Eindhoven region for years.
Oct 23 '17 12:00
The names of the Rutte III cabinet's Ministers and State Secretaries were announced on Saturday. In addition to Prime Minster Mark Rutte, there wil be 15 Ministers and eight State Secretaries. Just over a third of the new government are women. The expectation is that the Rutte III cabinet will take office on October 26th, RTL Nieuws reports.
May 10 '17 10:22
On Wednesday afternoon European Central Bank president Mario Draghi is visiting the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament. He can expect to be met with hostility and demands for the ECB to stop pushing billions of euros into the European economy in an effort to boost growth, NU.nl reports after speaking with numerous parliamentarians.
May 25 '16 12:27
The lower house of Dutch parliament mostly approves of the agreements the Euro-countries reached on debt relief for Greece, NU.nl reports after talking to the parliamentary parties.
Nov 17 '15 10:04
The investigation into the leak from the commission for the intelligence and security services is starting to take shape. The first two members of the parliamentary committee that will be investigating this leak were announced on Monday - PvdA parliamentarian Jeroen Recrout and VVD parliamentarian Mark Harbers.
Jul 16 '15 14:46
The VVD will reserve judgement on the new about 80 billion euro aid package to Greece until the real bargaining agreement has been reached.
Jul 7 '15 09:20
Prime Minister Mark Rutte is not very optimistic about the European Union summit on the Greek debt crisis on Tuesday. During a parliamentary debate on the matter on Monday, the Prime Minister said that he does not want to hear any "rubbish stories" from the Greeks.
Dec 23 '14 13:23
The Rotterdam gay ambassadors are quitting after four years. The reason for this is that the seven prominent Rotterdam residents, who on behalf of the city worked to make homosexuality an approachable topic, can not get access to professional football clubs in the city. This said the ambassadors in Trouw today.
Aug 15 '14 11:23
The recent figures from the Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (CPB) show that the recover after the crisis in The Netherlands is definite, but "fragile", Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem says.
