For puffs, slices of cake, merci chocolates, coffee and tea, churchgoers of the Open Hof in Kampen must be with Henk and Ria Kouwenhoven on Friday afternoon. The couple from Sneek, both 67 years old, both just retired and with a floral shirt on, takes care of the reception at the church shelter that the Babayants family is offered. The family stays illegally in the Netherlands and threatens to be deported to Uzbekistan, a country that is unknown to the children of the family. A continuous church service, which has been going on day and night for seven months, has to prevent that. “In a scathemelt of rich country like the Netherlands we cannot leave them in the cold, it is our systems that fail,” says Henk Kouwenhoven.
The Babayants and thousands of other people without valid residence documents become punishable if it is up to the Lower House. He agreed late on Thursday evening with two controversial asylum laws, which also includes the PVV amendment about illegality criminalizing. The Senate still has to approve the proposals. The family opts for peace and does not talk to the press on Friday. Providing assistance to people in illegality is also prohibited according to the new law. How does that fall at the church shelter in Kampen?
This is the loss of humanity, democracy and the rule of law
Ria Kouwenhoven is “very angry” about it, “it is insane that we are declared criminal.” According to her, SGP and NSC have a ‘unprecedented’ letter to parliament, in which outgoing asylum minister David van Weel (VVD) promises to wait for advice from the Council of State, “with a clod in the reeds”. “Our three daughters have six grandchildren. They no longer grow up in a social Netherlands where it is normal for you to help each other.” Henk has “no worries” that it would once condemn them “a judge who is human.” Above all, it makes him “combative”.
Stand up for vulnerable
One of the endlessly constant series of church services that has been held in the Open Hof in Kampen for seven months to secure the church shelter for an illegal family.
Photos Wouter de Wilde
This also applies to pastor Wilfrieda Stam from Almelo. She walks out the large room with candles and white chairs in which she has been pastor for four hours. Stam takes off her gown (“Hey, so hot”) and puts it in a bright red suitcase. “I am apparent about this law, but I refuse to be powerless. God asks me to stand up for those who are not seen, such as for children who are rooted here and have to leave the land.”
When a majority of the House of Representatives supported the asylum laws on Thursday evening, Herman Stomphorst (52) from Gouda and his wife sat in the public gallery. Stomphorst, imterim manager by profession, has a day’s task on the practical side of the church shelter, such as arranging the schedules with volunteers. “The SGP has been the constitutional conscience of the Chamber for years, what is left of it?” On the way back from The Hague, he and his wife had little to say to each other, so they were defeated according to Stomphorst.
There are about ten people in the room where the service takes place. In a meeting room In addition, Stomphorst and Kasper Jager (66), the pastor of Open Hof, view politics. Jager experiences “a sense of mourning” about “this cruel asylum policy.” “This is the loss of humanity, democracy and the rule of law.” In addition, both Stomphorst and Jager say, people who offer help criminalize is bad, but distracts from what it really matters: the people without papers “who have a life that you don’t give anyone”. The asylum laws ‘jerking families apart’ and ” offer people no perspective, “Stomphorst expects. “They just can’t be there,” says Jager with sad eyes. “Parties like NSC only take action when it comes to people from their own circle, such as volunteers.”
One of the endless continuing series of church services in the Open Hof in Kampen. Photo Wouter de Wilde
The square in front of the church
Also on the square in front of the church, with purple flower boxes, a snack bar and a supermarket, the asylum laws are the subject of conversation. Alie Bosch (65), who has just bought a “a nice dessert, but no ice or chocolate”, loads her groceries in the car. Bosch finds the new asylum laws ‘outrageous’. “You just have to stay human.” Her children live in Bremen and near Barcelona. “They are accepted there, you grant people here too.” It makes her disappointment from politics, Bosch no longer voted in the previous parliamentary elections.
With her shopping bag in hand, Administrative Assistant Alice (52), who does not want her last name in the newspaper, hesitates whether she will say it. Then it comes out: “The last time I voted PVV, for the first time, to ensure that the left does not come to power.” On Wilders his ‘chaos’ she has broken, she is now in doubt between VVD and CDA. One party did agree with the asylum laws, the other not. Alice understands that the volunteers at the church shelter ‘do their stinking best’, “you don’t have to punish them.” But the asylum policy must “stricter”. About her voice in the upcoming parliamentary elections, she concludes: “I have a few more months.”