Dutch nationality can only be taken away if the person holds another passport as well because countries are not allowed under international law to make people stateless.

In total 60 people had to hand in their passports because of they had been involved in terrorism, had served prison terms longer than eight years or had joined an organisation which participates in armed conflict and poses a danger to national security.

The remaining 30 were foreign nationals who had acquired Dutch nationality but had not done enough to give up their original passport ? as required under Dutch rules on naturalisation, the IND confirmed to Dutch News.

According to caretaker junior justice minister Arno Rutte, revoking Dutch nationality is a “rare and drastic” measure. “Dutch nationality gives you rights but responsibilities as well. People who systematically ignore their responsibilities will face the consequences,” he told RTL Nieuws.

Rutte said the figures show how seldom the measure is applied. “These are individual and legally complex cases which are weighed with due care,” he said.

GroenLinks-PvdA MP Songul Mutluer told RTL she is in favour of a tough approach to terrorism but doubts whether taking away citizenship is the way to tackle the problem. “It may seem to promote security but people disappear, and fall off the radar. And that can create more risks,” she said.

We could not provide the Dutch News service, and keep it free of charge, without the generous support of our readers. Your donations allow us to report on issues you tell us matter, and provide you with a summary of the most important Dutch news each day.

Our thanks to everyone who donates regularly to Dutch News. It costs money to produce our daily news service, our original features and daily newsletters, and we could not do it without you.

If you have not yet made a donation, or did so a while ago, you can do so via these links

The DutchNews.nl team

Please help us making DutchNews.nl a better read by taking part in a short survey.