DUTCH MPs last night voted narrowly against granting a residency permit to an 18-year-old Angolan youth who arrived unaccompanied in the Netherlands at age 10 and now faces deportation.
As the vote was taking place following an extraordinary parliamentary split on the issue, the teenager, Mauro Manuel – known simply as “Mauro” – waited with his Dutch foster parents in the square outside the parliament chamber in The Hague, surrounded by hundreds of the supporters who have made his case a cause celebre.
When news emerged that both of the motions that might have changed his fate had been defeated, a tearful Mauro – who earlier in the day made an unprecedented written plea to MPs before their vote – said simply that he was “very sorry” about their decision.
In that appeal he had told the parliamentarians: “I promise I will always try to be an asset to the Netherlands. Please let me stay here forever. I would like to be an example to others and work for Dutch society all my life.
“I want to be a symbol of integration into Dutch society. I want to celebrate Queen’s Day every year. And as a footballer myself, I want the Dutch team to be champions.”
In the event, such sentiments cut no ice and the 150 MPs voted along predictable party lines. A motion calling on immigration minister Gerd Leers to grant the residency permit was thrown out by 78 votes to 72, and a second motion simply calling on the government to find a solution to his dilemma met the same fate.
The two government parties, Liberals and Christian Democrats, were joined by Geert Wilders’s anti-immigration Freedom Party and the right-wing Christian SGP, in voting against a permit.
The opposition Labour Party, along with the Greens, the Socialists, social-democratic D66 and a number of smaller parties, voted in favour. There had been speculation, following a poll of Christian Democrat supporters which showed 70 per cent of them favoured Mauro being allowed to stay, that some party MPs might break ranks with the government – but the revolt never happened.
However, in an embarrassing move just hours before the MPs’ vote, the Caribbean island of Curaçao – an autonomous state within the Netherlands – said it would welcome Mauro and his foster family if the vote was rejected.
This could become a solution, because if Mauro were to settle there, he would ultimately be entitled to a Dutch passport and citizenship.