This week the Imuse family was put on the plane to Nigeria. It concerns mother Lydia and her children Isaac (16), Sarah (11) and Rejoice (7). The family lived in the AZC in Emmen for eight years. What about those years of procedures? And what are the consequences for a child?
According to Esther Stomphorst of children’s rights organization Childsupporto, the Imuse family is the first family with ‘rooted’ children in five years that has been plotted. “Every time a police van comes in an AZC in the morning, I will get a phone call. Families are often written out, but they have traveled through another country of Europe or they are shorter here. Recently we had a Jordan family in Katwijk, but that family was ultimately not deported and the profession in the Netherlands is allowed to wait.”
The situation with the Imuse family is reminiscent of that of the Babayants family, who has been in hiding in a church in Kampen for six months. Aram (21), Ariana (13), Amelia (10) and Alexa (2) have also been living with their parents in the AZC in Emmen for years. Son Aram is even good friends with Isaac imuse and has had contact after the deportation. “He said it is difficult and that they had a lot of stress. He was in pain in his wrist through the handcuffs they were told in the plane. He is worried about his sisters and I am worried about them,” Aram said at Radio 1.
A child is ‘rooted’ as soon as it lives in the Netherlands for more than five years. According to Renée Roodhuizen of Defense for Children, 420 children are in the same situation as the children of the families Imuse and Babayants. According to experts, children who have been deported for years are ‘extremely vulnerable’.
The fact that families can stay in the Netherlands for so long comes because the children’s pardon was abolished in 2019. “Since 2019, there is no longer a scheme for children who have been living in the Netherlands for more than five years. Now that there is no arrangement at all to protect rooted children in the Netherlands, their development is being compromised.”
According to Esther Stomphorst, it is only logical that asylum seekers use their right to objection procedures. According to her, the government does that too. “Someone is free to make use of it. The national lawyer also appeals to the court if there is a decision where the asylum seeker can remain correct.”