HILVERSUM, 13/01/04 - Asylum-seekers who have AIDS can stay in the Netherlands. In a number of cases, courts have ruled that the disease gives patients the right to a residence permit if no proper medical treatment exists in their own country.

For the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND), having AIDS is no reason for being allowed to remain in the Netherlands. In all cases that AIDS patients have appealed against this, however, the courts have found in their favour, and a residence permit therefore had to be awarded after all. The courts do distinguish between having AIDS and only being a carrier of HIV, the virus that can cause the disease.

In the Lower House, reactions were unworried. The Christian democrats (CDA) and Labour (PvdA) do not believe that the rule will lead to an influx of AIDS patients from countries including Africa.

The PvdA is however concerned about the so-called 'EU laissez-passers' which the IND uses to expel Somali asylum-seekers. According to immigration law professor P. Boeles of Leiden University, the IND is not authorised to issue these documents.

Rival clans hold sway in Somalia and there is no central government providing travel documents via embassies. The IND states that the courts do not consider the EU laissez-passers unlawful. The PvdA and SP however want clarification from Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk over these "dubious practices."

Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht local authorities have meanwhile promised Verdonk that they will expel rejected asylum-seekers from their homes. The four cities had previously refused to cooperate with their ejection.

The rejected asylum seekers will in future be taken to special centres pending their departure from the Netherlands. It is not yet known how many centres there will be and where. The minister will send details of this plan in a memorandum to parliament this month.