The Netherlands will ‘carefully explain’ its position on the fostering of nine-year-old Yunus by a lesbian couple to Turkish prime minister Recep Tavyip Erdogan later this week, foreign minister Frans Timmermans said in a statement on Tuesday.

Timmermans told MPs the cabinet would outline on Thursday the ‘careful considerations’ which are made when taking decisions about children who are in foster care.

A row has erupted in Turkey about the fostering of the boy by two women. He has been with them since he was removed from home as a baby because of suspected physical abuse by his Turkish parents.

They have recently launched a vociferous campaign to get the boy back and made an appeal to Erdogan for help.

State visit

Social affairs minister Lodewijk Asscher said on Friday Turkish interference in the issue is ‘completely inappropriate’.

Erdogan is in the Netherlands on Thursday to meet the queen and prime minister and attend a cultural event in connection with celebrations to mark 400 years of Dutch-Turkish relations.

Erdogan will not visit the Islamic university in Rotterdam during his visit, sources have told RTL news. There had been reports Erdogan would visit the college, where some people were planning a demonstration against the fostering of Yunus by a non-Turkish family.

Earlier stories:
MPs call for more Muslims to take responsibility as foster parents
Diplomatic row looms over lesbian foster family for Turkish boy
Lesbian couple go into hiding with Turkish foster c