The mayor of Amersfoort has made an urgent appeal to justice minister Stef Blok not to deport a five-year-old boy with Down’s syndrome to Iraq.

The boy, his brother and mother face deportation to Baghdad after failing to win refugee status in the Netherlands. The child, nicknamed Zuzu, was born in Syria but has Iraqi nationality, like his mother. His father is Palestinian and lives with his sister in Syria.

Earlier this month, Amersfoort woman Deborah Ligtenberg started an online petition in protest at the planned deportation of the boy. It has since been signed some 15,000 times.

After speaking to Ligtenberg and the family’s lawyer, mayor Lucas Bolsius has decided to raise the issue with the minister, who has discretionary powers to grant the family refugee status on compassionate grounds.

Refugee camp

The justice ministry has not commented directly on the case. However, asked by broadcaster NOS if a child with Down’s would be more likely to be able to stay in the Netherlands, a spokesman said: ‘If a medical condition is involved, then it has to be asked if the person can get the care they need in the country of origin. Otherwise, the Netherlands will become the world’s hospital.’

In addition, ‘Down’s syndrome is not something which only occurs in the Netherlands,’ the spokesman is quoted as saying.

Down’s specialist Michel Weijerman told the AD last week that Zuzu’s position in Iraq will be ‘hopeless’. ‘He will live in a refugee camp, where his weak health will not be able to deal with the poor hygiene. In Iraq, he will go downhill physically, mentally and developmentally,’ Weijerman told the AD.