12 October 2004

AMSTERDAM — Dutch Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk has said she is not opposed to paying damages to expats or immigrants who have suffered financially due to chronic delays in issuing residence permits.
 
Foreigners applying for compensation would have to provide evidence of the financial damage incurred. To date, no compensation claims have been submitted by individual expats, the minister said.

A Justice Ministry spokesman told Expatica that requests for compensation will be processed as per normal with an independent ruling. Elements such as the type of damages, the financial amount and the preventative steps taken will be taken into account.

The contact details for the IND are: Afdeling Communicatie, Postbus 5800, 2280 HV Rijswijk. For telephone inquiries: 0900 1234561.

Amsterdam City council has already threatened to sue because the permit delays are impacting the compulsory integration courses for immigrants it runs.

And opposition MPs rounded on Verdonk during a debate late on Monday about the chaos surrounding the embattled immigration service IND.

The Labour PvdA, green-left GroenLinks, Democrat D66 and the small Christian parties SGP and ChristenUnie parties said Verdonk should have identified the problems earlier and intervened to prevent the ensuing chaos.

But the Christian Democrat CDA said Verdonk cannot be blamed for all of the problems within the IND, news agency ANP reported. Verdonk's own party, the Liberal VVD, refused to criticise the minister.

Thousands of expats and immigrants have encountered serious problems in recent months because they have not been issued with a residence permit. An inquiry last week also revealed that the problems were much more serious than Verdonk had previously indicated.

It was revealed in July that 28,000 residence permit applications had been lodged more than 6 months ago. By law, the IND is required to make a decision within six months and Minister Verdonk promised to process 90 percent of the delayed applications by the end of this year.

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