A Dutch television presenter and journalist has managed to gather over 70,000 signatures for a petition to force parliament to debate the deportation of well-rooted refugee children in just one night.

Under the citizens’ initiative scheme, controversial issues have to be placed on the parliamentary agenda if more than 40,000 signatures have been collected in support. Tim Hofman now hopes to eventually collect more than 100,000 signatures.

The petition was launched to coincide with a documentary by Hofman called Terug Naar Je Eige Land (back to your own country) which focuses on children who have been sent back to countries they barely know.

A number of high-profile cases recently have once again focused attention on the cases of children who are told they will be deported to countries which they may never have been in. Some 400 children are currently known to be in this position because they do not qualify for the strict child amnesty rules.

In September, prime minister Mark Rutte said there would be no change in the rules. ‘We have a fair and strong asylum policy,’ Rutte said.

ChristenUnie and D66 are both known to be sympathetic to the plight of refugee children who do not quality for the amnesty, but have opted so far to toe the cabinet line.

‘The long-term pressure of impending deportation is not good for children,’ Hofman said. ‘We are creating kids with enormous problems, and that can never have been the aim of parents, politicians and society. What we are doing is inhumane.’