A Dutch mayor has told a council meeting he is helping a Syrian family remain in hiding after the national government marked a 24-year-old mother and her four children for deportation.
Mayor Jos Heijmans, from the city of south-eastern city of Weert, said he had assisted in housing the family at a secret address after several appeals to national authorities were rejected.
According to Dutch outlet NRC, the woman’s application to stay in the Netherlands been rejected because EU rules state that asylum requests must be made in the country of first arrival, which in in this case was Germany.
The woman’s brother, 18, has been granted asylum in the Netherlands, while she has been registered as a refugee in neighbouring Germany. The mother and her children were due to be put on a train to Germany on May 3, according to Mr Heijmans.
The mayor told the council he did want to see a family torn apart.
“I knew about this and I did not try to stop the volunteers – I support them,” he said. “In this case I followed my heart, not the rules.”
Burgemeester Jos Heijmans over de Syrische moeder met haar vier kinderen. #PAUW https://t.co/ruNjkqcm1g — Pauw (@pauwnl) May 13, 2016
“We do not live in a war, the refugees are not ‘in hiding’, but in an unknown destination,” he told Dutch TV.
Dutch Interior Minister Ronald Plasterk has said he will look into the matter, but that, “in principle everyone should stick to the rules.”
The Dutch Society of Mayors said it was not appropriate for Mr Heijmans to have put himself ‘above the law.’
Mayor Heijmans said he was not out for profit and did not consider himself above the law.
The mayor is a member of Democrats 66, a progressive social liberal party founded in 1966.
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