The state secretary of the Ministry of Justice in the Netherlands, Ankie Broekers-Knol, informed parliament in The Hague on Wednesday that the Netherlands decided not to deport rejected asylum seekers to Afghanistan for the next six months.

Ms Broekers-Knol said this was due to the advance of the Taliban in the country as the situation had deteriorated considerably.

Furthermore, no further decisions on deportation cases would be taken in the next 12 months.

The state secretary said that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was reassessing the security situation while a final decision on deportations would be made.

After the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops, the militant Islamist Taliban have taken over numerous provincial towns.

Recently, the government urged the authorities in Afghanistan to continue accepting deported asylum seekers.

Members of parliament from three coalition parties, as well as refugee organisations, had sharply criticised this and demanded a stop to deportations.

On Tuesday, the EU ambassadors in Afghanistan had also advised against deportations to the crisis-hit country.