Newly elected Chamber stops deportation of asylum seekers

THE HAGUE – The newly elected Second Chamber of the Dutch parliament has engineered a stop to the deportations of asylum seekers who after many years in limbo in the Netherlands are being sent back to countries who do not want them either. Spearheading the deportations was controversial minister Rita Verdonk who frequently was at loggerheads with the pre-election Second Chamber. A coalition of mainly left-of-centre parties in a razor thin majority demanded that the deportations be put on hold. The care-taker cabinet initially refused but after meeting for nearly twelve hour found a way to avoid the resignation of all Conservative Liberal ministers. Verdonk was relieved of the file dealing with asylum seekers.