Local councils that have stopped providing accommodation for third-country nationals who fled to the Netherlands from Ukraine are within their rights to do so, despite Tuesday’s court ruling, refugee minister Eric van der Burg has said. 

The councils can press ahead with evicting third-country nationals even though the Council of State has said it is still waiting for clarity from the European Court of Justice, Van der Burg told local authorities in a letter.

On Tuesday, the country’s highest administrative court said six people who had come to the Netherlands from Ukraine when Russia invaded retained the right to housing pending the outcome of the EU court’s deliberations. Amsterdam district court has asked the EU court for its position. 

The Council of State had earlier ordered them to leave by the end of last month after their rights to be treated in the same way as Ukrainians were removed. 

Van den Burg said the Council of State’s ruling only applied to the six Amsterdam-based third-country nationals. “This does not mean that other third-country nationals fall under this ruling,” he said. 

The junior minister said a week ago that the situation is “extremely complex” after some third-country nationals were given the green light to remain in the Netherlands in court verdicts, but others were told to leave.

Judges in Roermond, Haarlem and Den Bosch have said that third-country nationals can stay in the Netherlands as long as Ukrainians themselves, whereas judges in Zwolle, Utrecht, The Hague and Arnhem judges have ruled that the Council of State, as the highest legal body in the country, should be respected.

In total, some 2,500 third-country nationals came to the Netherlands along with the influx of Ukrainian refugees. Some were students or working, others were married to Ukrainian nationals.