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The fairy tale of the Dutch tolerant society and the humane asylum-policyAnonyme, Friday, February 4, 2005 - 22:53 (Analyses | Immigration) In contrarily with the general allegations in American and Western newsmedia, not only the Netherlands is no open society for minorities, moreover the Dutch asylum-policy is violating gravely international humanitarian principles. The fairy tale of the Dutch tolerant society and the humane asylum-policy As many readers shall know, the commonly accepted international image of the Netherlands being a tolerant and open society has been largerly changed by the growing anti-moslim climate after the 11 september attacks. A Controversial asylum measures before the ministerial period of minister Verdonk: Although the appointment dd 27-5-2003 of minister Verdonk of Alien Affairs and Integration and her ensuing measures [policy] have led to grave violations of the human rights of a growing number of asylum-seekers, it is of great importance to point out clearly that in contrary to the widespread idea of the Dutch humanitarian policy regarding asylum-seekers, also before mrs Verdonks access the Dutch asylum-policy has been characterized by a number of serious breaches of International Law. 1 Accelerated asylum-procedures and the treatment of children: From 1994, the AC procedure was being introduced, an accelerated method, by which the IND [Immigration-Department] officials had to make a decision between 48 hours [practically within three days] after two interviews with the asylum-seeker, whether an asylum-request was rejected or the request was being transferred to the regular asylum procedure which guaranteed a thourough investigation, since the decision-time varied from a couple of weeks until more than a year. 2 Treatment of children: Also worrying was the treatment of unacompanied child-asylum-seekers in general, especialy children under twelve years. 3 Violation of the basic-needs of asylum-seekers: Another serious violation of the rights of asylum-seekers stemmed from the fact, that asylum-seekers, awaiting an appeal after an initial rejection of their application in the accelerated AC procedure, have no right to material reception benefits, including basic shelter like housing or social and medical support provisions, unless they are too ill to travel to their country of origin or have an infant under the age of one year. Despite international protests of several Dutch and international religious and human rights organisations however, the Dutch government didn't review these measures with all humanitarian consequences as such. B The return policy of minister Verdonk as a grave violation of International Law: At 27-5 2003 the right wing liberal mrs Verdonk was assigned as a minister of Integration and Alien Affairs. 1 Dutch bureaucracy and the unsafe return-situation: The main injustice of this plan was based on two points Not only the expulsion of Chenchens and Liberians hasn't stopped despite the great safety-risk, also the solution of minister Verdonk, to expell Chenchens to Russia in stead of the unsafe Chenchenya, in order to enlarge their safety, makes no sense. 2 Dutch non-refoulement obligation: By endangering the lives of the refugees in sending them back to humanitarian-unsafe situations, the Dutch governmental autorities are not only acting inhumanely, moreover they violate seriously their international judicial obligation on non-refoulement, which means the strictly prohibition to send refugees back to countries or parts of countries where their life or safety is being threatened. a Regarding Somalia: In spite of the fact, that the European Court of Human Rights has prevented in a number of times the expulsion of Somalians and that several Somalians have been arrested after arrival in Somalia, the Dutch government has to heretho refused to change her expulsion-[policy regarding Somalian refugees. b Afghanistan en Liberia: Startling is also the argumentation of minister Verdonk, that although her recognition of the unsafe situation in Afghanistan and Liberia, she yet continues the expulsion-policy regarding Afghans and Liberians because this is also being done by other European countries. Being a minister, who is responsible for the maintainance of the human rights of the asylum-seekers in the Netherlands, her above ventilated point of view is highly condemnable. 3 Dutch protests: It is not surprising, that those measures of minister Verdonk have led to strong Dutch protests, not only from the side of Dutch refugee and human rights organisations, the Churches and the leftist political parties, but also from the majority of the Dutch public, who was especially indignated by the expulsion of asylum-seekers, who lived and worked in the Netherlands for a considerable time, so giving fheir contribution to the Dutch economy. Seen in the light of the massality and indiscriminative character of the expulsions with no regard whatsoever of the safety of the countries involved, it seems an appropriate description of those measures. 4 International protests International protests were especially uttered by the UN and international human rights organisations as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. C Moral standards: Yet apart from her obvious illegal asylum-policy, mrs Verdonk recently draw public attention with her controversial uttering of sympathy for a woman, who dd 17-1 killed a Moroccan boy, who had stolen her bag. Yet apart from the fact, that a minister has to abstain from a judgment about current law-procedures, by this remark she was also suggesting to hold a plea for the legally forbidden use of violence between civilians without the legally admitted self-defense situation. It is highly recommendable when minister Verdonk by the practice of her ministerial task not only shows more respect for the right on life of everybody, regardless of his criminal state, which has been guaranteed in article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but especially will base her asylum-policy on one of the most crucial principles of human rights legislation, that each refugee has a right on a safe living place and only can be expelled when his return-situation is safe and humane. Astrid Essed |
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