DEMONSTRATION FOR HUMANE ASYLUM SEEKERS POLICY

Since the prime minister Hans Peter Balkenende is in power, the image of The Netherlands changed from a tolerant and open society, into a restrictive and inward looking society. Especially the way the Dutch system treats asylum seekers has been seriously criticised by human right organisations, other European states and by many Dutch refugee aid organisations. The European Council and Human Right Watch stated that the situation in The Netherlands needs improvement, since human rights are violated.

This coming Saturday, the 4th of November 2006, a demonstration is organised by different organisations that fight for the rights of refugees in The Netherlands. In front of the parliament in The Hague, the demonstrators will ask for a far reaching ‘general pardon’ for asylum seekers that wait for too long.

Just before the national elections on the 22nd of November, the organisations that help asylum seekers and Dutch politicians and celebrities will make a last appeal to the nation for a final and far reaching ‘general pardon’ for all refugees that already wait too long for a permit of stay in front of the parliament in The Hague.

Although the theme is not discussed much in the political arena and in the Dutch media, there is a large group of people and organisations that is helping refugees. They declared that they are in favour of a general pardon settlement for all asylum seekers that arrived in The Netherlands before the new immigration law of 2001.

All these people from schools, refugee organisations, unions and voluntary organisations, call on to finally choose for an ‘humane asylum seekers policy, starting with a general pardon’. Besides the general pardon the organisations ask for changes in the fast, and through this often careless procedures after refugees arrived, and for the fact that also refugee children are jailed before being expelled or before being thrown in the streets because the Dutch system does not know what to do with them.

Thousands of refugees, often families are now helped by a varied group of volunteers through out the country. In the northern province Friesland there even exists an alternative emergency reception centre that houses more than 100 people, of wich 45 are children. Many of them already wait for a residence permit for over five years. Some even wait longer than 10 years. The stories of these people are dreadful, and it becomes clear that the extremely strict Dutch immigration system wants to meet the goals of the actual government, but that this makes many victims. One of the reasons to organise the demonstration, is to ask the politicians that are in favour of a ‘general pardon’ to clearly pronounce this, so the asylum seekers issue will at least play a role in the coming elections.

One city in the middle of The Netherlands decided not to wait for a ‘general pardon’, but to already take an advance on a possible political solution. On their website the organisation explains why they rebel against the national immigration policy:  ‘In our region around hundred fifty men, women and children are confronted with problems that are difficult to imagine for Dutch citizens. The government asks them to leave their intimate surroundings, and to prepare for their return to a country that they often left years ago, in a ‘departure centre’ or in a cell in a ‘deportation centre’. There is even a large chance that these people will end up in the Dutch streets without any facilities, because the system does not know what else to do with them. What did these people do wrong? Nothing! They asked for asylum in an age that the human rights were still respected. But the Dutch authorities could not process their requests and now these people are confronted with a policy that has to scare off new asylum seekers.’ The involved civilians and organisations decided to help these kinds of asylum seekers by giving them a house,pocket money and some social- and juridical help and advise, as an advance on a possible new immigration policy. 

The organisation does not have a political colour. They only have one main viewpoint and that is that the old cases of asylum seekers in The Netherlands have the moral right to stay in The Netherlands. The main reason why people are rebelling against the strict Dutch immigration policy is that people that are waiting for a permit for five years should have a clear view and perspective of their future. Now they can only wait, they are not allowed to work, and since they do not have money they practically cannot travel. Often they are already rooted in the Dutch society, especially via the children. Since the children of asylum seekers are allowed to go to schools until they reach the age of eighteen, most of them speak fluent Dutch. Some of the children are born in The Netherlands and often this means they become stateless.

On the website the organisation states: ‘The actual situation came into existence because the national policy of this government and previous governments failed, and people cannot be forced back to their home country after so many years, because they are rooted far too much in Dutch society and they miss networks in their mother country, and the situation there is often very dangerous. These arguments are all in line with the known international human right organisations and other organisations that are occupied with the Dutch asylum seekers policy.’ more features

November 1, 2006