Immigration minister Nebahat Albayrak has been accused of handing out discretionary residency permits ‘like Father Christmas’ to immigrants whose applications had been turned down, various media report on Thursday.

The accusation was made in a letter from one or more employees of the immigration service IND.
The letter, which also contained several official documents, was sent to Geert Wilders’ anti-immigration party PVV which has handed it over to the parliamentary justice committee.
Albayrak denies any abuse of her power to award discretionary permits in special circumstances. Since she became minister in February last year, she has awarded 340 such residency permits.
Her predecessor, the self-confessed hard-liner on immigration, Rita Verdonk, used her discretionary powers to award 1,150 residency permits although it is unclear over which period this was.
The IND has started an investigation into the leak of information.