Student Taida gets permission to return

19 July 2006

AMSTERDAM — Kosovar Taida Pasic is returning to study law in the Netherlands less than three months after Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk forced her to leave the country.

The Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) has given a positive recommendation in response to an application by the University of Leiden, spokesperson Martin Bruinsma for the Ministry of Justice said on Wednesday.

Pasic, who wants to study law, lodged an application at the beginning of July for permission to come to the Netherlands. The application was processed within a few weeks as is the case with other students, Bruinsma said. “She meets all the conditions to study in the Netherlands.”

The Kosovar now must apply for a student visa. This should be a formality. She came into conflict with Verdonk and the IND earlier this year because she was accused of abusing the system.

Pasic successfully obtained her Dutch VWO secondary school certificate recently. She sat the exams in the Dutch embassy in Sarajevo. She had to leave the Netherlands at the end of April after a court sided with Verdonk’s contention that she was in the country illegally.

Her family sought asylum in the Netherlands when Taïda was 12. She went to school and learned Dutch quickly. She left with her family voluntarily in 2005 as the IND refused to grant them asylum status. She returned on her own a short time later to finish her VWO course.

Verdonk branded Pasic a fraud for returning to the Netherlands on a tourist visa after accepting EUR 7,000 to continue her schooling in Kosovo.

Subject: Dutch news