Decision to deport 26,000 refugees
01 January 2004
On 17 February the Dutch parliament agreed to deport around 26,000 rejected asylum seekers, living in Holland within the next three years. Many of them are families whose children have never lived outside of Holland. Those affected are refugees who applied for asylum before the coming into force of the 2001 Immigration and Asylum Act and whose asylum application was rejected. Only 2,300 asylum seekers whose individual situation is assessed as particularly precarious might be granted leave to remain in the country, under yet unknown preconditions. Particularly affected are refugees from the former Yugoslavia, Iraq and Afghanistan; they and their families face imprisonment if the authorities believe them to be uncooperative.
Although the Labour opposition party (Partij van de Arbeid - PvdA) is critical of the deportation plans, it was the PvdA that drew up the restrictive 2001 immigration law upon which this decision is based. The coalition government under Jan Peter Balkenende (Christen Democratisch Appèl - CDA) cut spending on refugees by 90 per cent last year, set-up detention centres for families and pushed for collective mass deportations with neighbouring countries such as Belgium. Immigration minister Rita Verdonk declared that the first refugees would be deported before this summer. Those affected will be brought to so-called deportation centres, a concept first developed by the Netherlands and extended and put into practice by Germany (see Statewatch, vol 13 no 5). These centres are openly intended to "break the will" of the deportee and "convince" him/her to return voluntarily. Thus, Dutch authorities say that from these centres the families should organise their own return. If they have not left within 12 weeks, they will be transferred to detention centres, that is imprisoned, or put on the streets without social support. Confronted with accusations by churches and human rights organisations that this policy was inhumane, Verdonk replied that "The Netherlands is a state based on law and order and the courts have rejected the asylum applications of these people."
There has been strong and widespread demonstrations against the decision by school children, human rights organisations, left parties and the asylum seekers themselves. According to some polls, two thirds of the population oppose this recent decision and more than half of the population is against deportation in principle. It is expected that refugees refusing to leave will find strong support within and outside their communities. It is as yet unclear how the government will deal with the mass deportations. Another recent government decision has restricted immigration from accession EU members from Eastern Europe to a maximum of 22,000 and restricts them to only take up jobs that no Dutch person wants to do.
Süddeutsche Zeitung 18.2.04, Jungle World 25.2.04.