THE HAGUE, 20/12/03 - Premier Jan Peter Balkenende on Friday pressed local authorities to eject failed asylum-seekers from their home or reception center. Everyone, including municipalities, must keep the law, he considers.

Many local authorities refuse to put rejected asylum-seekers out on the street. Though they have often been requested to leave the country by more than one court, they do not do so, which according to some is due to uncooperative embassies and to others, because the asylum-seekers would rather remain in the Netherlands illegally.

The Lower House this week called on Immigration Minister Verdonk to temporarily allow local authorities to ignore the law from humanitarian considerations, partly in view of the approaching winter weather. But Balkenende said Friday that the motion, supported by his own Christian democrats (CDA), "is impossible to implement" because it is in conflict with the law.

Balkenende announced that Verdonk will send a letter to parliament on Monday stating that the local authorities must continue with ejections. In the Lower House, only the conservatives (VVD) and Pim Fortuyn List (LPF) support the government. The CDA has however said that it, too, considers the asylum-seekers must be shown the door when Verdonk discloses in January how she is going to actively expel them from the country.