Junior justice minister Fred Teeven on Thursday evening survived a vote of no confidence on his handling of asylum seekers following the suicide of Russian activist Aleksander Dolmatov.

The ruling VVD and Labour parties kept their support in the minister, backed up by the anti-immigration PVV, the fundamentalist Christian SGP and 50Plus, which represents the over-50s.

Teeven said earlier in the day he would prefer not to resign and that he had confidence in the measures he had implemented to ensure the safety of asylum seekers.

Failings

The debate was called following last week’s publication of a damning report into Dolmatov’s suicide, which blamed a string of failings. In particular, Dolmatov should never have been earmarked for deportation because his appeal was still pending.

Teeven told parliament earlier this week, almost 300 other refugees had been wrongly classified as ready to be deported and seven were ultimately sent back.

Teeven has promised to set up an independent inquiry into the quality of the systems that deal with asylum seekers.