The children’s ombudsman Marc Dullaert on Monday published information about 54 children who have been refused permission to stay in the Netherlands despite living here for more than five years.

The list includes children who were born in the Netherlands, who have been through the Dutch school system and who have never been in their country of origin. Some have been in the Netherlands for over 10 years.

However, the children are not covered by the government’s amnesty for child refugees because they did not fall under national government supervision for all of their time in the Netherlands.

Change

Dullaert says the terms of the amnesty must be amended in line with international treaties on children’s rights. Those rights state that the interests of the child are paramount and that has not always been the case in the way the amnesty has been applied, Dullaert said.

Junior justice minister Fred Teeven has already said he will not change the terms of the amnesty but will use his right of discretion to look at some cases again.

Opposition party leaders have also criticised the strict way the amnesty is being applied and over 300 mayors have signed a petition calling for change.

Applications

A total of 675 children and 775 of their family members were given Dutch residency permits under the government’s amnesty for young refugees, according to immigration service figures. Some 3,260 children had applied..

To qualify for the amnesty, children should have lived in the Netherlands for at least five years and been under national government supervision. They must also be under the age of 21 and have lied about their identity to officials no more than once.

The cases highlighted on the ombudsman’s website include An, Yue and Manchu (7, 5 and 2 years old) who were all born in the Netherlands but face deportation because their father was not under government supervision all the time. Their mother and the children were.

Eviction

Fatima, Sokhrah and Nikad (13, 10 and 8 years old) were also born in the Netherlands but face deportation because they were looked after by a charity after being evicted from a refugee centre in 2010. Therefore they are not considered to have been under national government supervision and do not qualify for a residency permit.

Georgi and Choira (14 and 13 years) were born in Georgia and Armenia and have been in the Netherlands for 10 years. They are not covered by the amnesty because they were outside national government supervision even though they were registered with their local council and attended school and sports clubs.

Other children have been refused a residency permit because their parents lied about their identity more than once, or because their parents had not applied for asylum. In these cases, too, the interests of the child should be paramount, Dullaert said.