The Netherlands is to deport a Turkish family back to Turkey after 30 years, including sons aged 18 and 15 who were born here.

The Council of State, the country’s highest administrative court, has ruled in favour of the IND immigration service, which wants to send the family back because father Recep Aslan does not have proper residency papers.

Aslan came to the Netherlands 30 years ago and worked in a restaurant which went bust in 2014. It then emerged he did not have a residency permit and the family now faces deportation.

‘The future of these children is being torn up,’ lawyer Frank van Haren told local broadcaster AT5. ‘But we have run out of legal options. The only remaining option is to go to the European Court, but I don’t rate our chances.’

In 2017, former Amsterdam mayor Eberhard van der Laan wrote to the justice ministry calling for clemency and in 2018 a court found in their favour. But the immigration service appealed to the Council of State, which has now given its final ruling.

Erdem Alsan, 15, told AT5 he is frightened about moving to Turkey. ‘I don’t really speak the language and I have no friends there,’ he said. ‘I have no idea what it waiting for me. It is a very different country to the Netherlands.’