Leave the Netherlands Now (Maybe)

Yesterday Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali was told, by Rita Verdonk, that she is not entitled to Dutch Citizenship, because she lied on her application for refugee status.

In 1992.

It wasn't a secret that she'd lied on the application, at least not since she was vetted as a member of the VVD, the party to which Ms Verdonk also belongs.

In 2002.

There was a marathon debate in parliament yesterday. I saw some of it on TV - the part where Ms Verdonk repeated "she has six weeks to respond" in response to each and every question.

The debate ended in the small hours of this morning, with Ms Verdonk forced to reconsider her decision.

A majority of the political parties in parliament backed two motions on the issue. One calls on Verdonk to reconsider within six weeks whether Hirsi Ali is a Dutch citizen. The second instructs the Minister to grant Hirsi Ali accelerated naturalisation if she finds she is not a citizen of the Netherlands.

This whole thing stinks.

Firstly: Would Hirsan Ali have qualified if she had not lied on her form? The answer to this seems to be yes, since the only items that have been admitted into the public as lies are her name, her date of birth, that she did not come directly from Somalia but instead via a refugee camp in Kenya. There hasn't been anything reported indicating that she did not have the "well founded fear of persecution" which is the main criterion for refugee status. As one person commmented "is she less of a refugee because she went through three civil wars rather than five?"

Genuine refugee applicants as a group are highly likely to lie; they have a good reason to protect their identity, and a need to tell their story in the most convincing way. If Ms Verdonk wants to pursue the "regels zijn regels" (rules are rules) mentality there will be thousands of former refugees forced to leave the Netherlands and return to their home countries - which are often still war torn.

Secondly: Why now? Hirsan Ali declared all of this when she was vetted as a member of the parliament in 2002, and stated it again in 2003

One part of the answer might be found in the recent case of Taida Pasic, the young Kosovo woman forced to return to her homeland despite being on the verge of sitting school exams. Verdonk's strict adherance to the rules led to the case being decided in record time.

So this is just to be consistent.

Or not.

Hirsan Ali has been an outspoken member of parliament on the issues of integration and emancipation particularly in relation to Islam. She was the author behind the movie Submission, (for which director Theo Van Gogh was murdered). She has been widely criticised as a divisive element in Dutch society.

Verdonk is ambitious and was leading the popularity stakes as the next leader of her party. Perhaps she thought that this would score points from those who disapproved of Hirsan Ali. She seems to have miscalculated I've heard from more than one Dutch person "I'm no fan of Hirsan Ali but this is do dumb."

Hirsan Ali resigned her position in parliament as of yesterday but apparently still has a job offer with a think tank in the US.