Dutch government defends deportation policy with intimidation and repression.

The Dutch gouvernment plans to pass a bill to allow a massive deportation of 26.000 asylum seekers, while only a tiny number of asylum seekers received a permit to stay in the Netherlands. Ever since this proposal, a wave of protest actions flooded the country and international organisations like Human Rights Watch condemn the policy as it would violate international standards and create dangerous situations for refugees.

In the series of actions that started at the end of Januari, a protest was planned at the detention centre of Zestienhoven near Rotterdam on Sunday the 21st of March. The demonstration was announced in due form and security issues were discussed with the local authorities. In spite of that, the local authorities illegally decided to forbid all protests, not only around Zestienhoven but in the whole city of Rotterdam.

A major police blockade was set up around the city. Two busses were stopped, all passengers were checked for id and illegaly photographed. Four people were arrested. All cars on their way to Zestienhoven were stopped, the people in the cars were questionned and photographed. They had to provide "a really good reason" to be let through. Public transport was stopped, all passengers were taken of those busses to be indentified and photographed as well. Protestors tried to walk back to the trainstation in a demonstration, but they were forbidden and forced back on a bus back to the city. Three police cars followed the bus all the way back to the trainstation that was swarming with cops too. Only a small alternative protest in front of the Bijlmer prison, which has a deportation section, in Amsterdam was allowed.

Photo's: [1] | [2] | [3] | [4] | [5] | [6] | [Audio]

The new deportation policy (en) was proposed after many municipalities stated they would not put rejected asylum seekers on the street and out of their houses, a policy that is already taking place for years. Among those "rejected", there are many families with children born in the Netherlands. The local authorities perceived the policies as being more and more unjust and impossible to perform. The new deportation centra's, alike the center of Zestienhoven, are to make deportation more efficiënt and bigger cities, like The Hague and Rotterdam, agreed with the new policies as it would release them from "moral obligations".

In the same time, many schoolchildren started protesting against the policies to send their fellow-classmates back to the country of their parents. When the minister announced that only 2100 refugees, who have been within the state borders for over five years, would granted a "pardon", the protests swelled. Several demonstrations took place, like a demonstration (en) in The Hague on the 9th of February [ photo's ] and on the 28th of January by schoolchildren [ photo's ]. There have been many local demonstrations as well, putting pressure on local authorities to reject the state policies.

As a part of this strategy, a bus campaign (nl) with refugees on board of the bus took place, visting several cities and smaller towns. Some refugees took on a long walk from Groningen, a nothern province, to The Hague, calling their protestmarch A long way to Freedom? [ photo's ].

A growing number of people offer a place to live for rejected refugees. There is a growing network in the country to help finding places to stay for refugees. In Amsterdam, protestors and concerned citizens painted the pavements in front of their doors with big houses, to show refugees they are welcome [ photo's ]. For 10 April a big demonstration (nl) is planned in Amsterdam.

In the past decades, asylum policies and policies against foreignors who live in the Netherlands have become ever more strict (en), with the infamous proposal of Rotterdam to ban the poor (en) in the lead. In the meantime, there are broad discussions within antiracist movements on alternative proposals such as open borders and the right to migration. See for example the brochure "A Flight Forwards" (en) and the article Plans for limiting migrant rights are getting more popular" (en).

[ Multilangual Articles | Human Rights Watch report on Dutch Policies | 1, 2 ]

Earlier feature: Camp for juvenile refugees de-fenced | Features on Indymedia NL: Zestienhoven | Protests against deportation politics ]

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