The Netherlands has paid at least 32 foreign delegations to organise identity papers for asylum seekers who have been refused permission to stay in the Netherlands but cannot be deported because they don’t have valid ID.

The Volkskrant has obtained a document from the deportation service  DT&V which shows at least €60,000 has been paid in basic fees to the delegations, which are brought in to source travel papers when diplomatic missions are unwilling or unable to help.

For example, visits by a delegation from Guinea cost at least €117,000, the documents show. On top of €16,200 in daily fees, this was made up of travel, food and hotel costs as well as ‘clothes and ear drops’, the paper said.

Cost unknown

The total cost of the practice of paying outsiders to establish identity and provide documents is unknown, the paper says. The information is ‘not fully digitalised’ and costs are ‘not included in the financial administration’, the paper quotes the DT&V as saying.

Delegates are paid €100 a day in cash, plus €500 per investigation, €50 for a successful indentification and €60 per travel document. Countries which have sent delegations to identify their nationals include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Nigeria, Liberia, Nepal and Sierra Leone.

The paper points out there have been problems with the papers supplied by the Guinea delegation and at least three people have been refused admittance to the country. The most recent group of 20 deportees were supplied papers by the Guinea embassy in Brussels instead.

DT&V told the paper it was not expecting any more visits from delegations in the near future and there have been none since March this year.