Expatica News reports that Dutch Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk has been issued an ultimatum to confirm by letter the Dutch Parliament’s demands that no asylum seekers will be deported for the time being. The parliament decided last week that no rejected asylum seekers who entered the country under the old pre-2001 immigration law should be deported until a new coalition government accord is in place.

The motion was a precursor to a renewed push for a general amnesty granting the asylum seekers official residency, a policy that Minister Verdonk said was “not feasible.” Parliament is demanding a debate with the Minister Verdonk. Verdonk said earlier this week that the national Dutch Immigration Service would temporarily freeze deportations until such a debate took place.

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According to the New Zealand Herald, the island nation has had a large growth of Asian immigrants; this ethnic group is growing faster in New Zealand than any other country, and is poised to eventually overtake that of the native Maori, census results show.

Within the past 5 years since the last New Zealand census, the Asian population has had a 48.9 percent increase, putting its population for the small island nation at 354,542, 9.2 percent of the total population.