Asylum seekers who were accused of violating privacy and causing noise nuisance in an azc are demanding in the Groningen court that the fines imposed on them by the COA be reversed.
It is very high for the Syrian asylum seeker MA (33). According to him, there are ‘hundreds of problems’ in the emergency shelter on Regulusweg in The Hague, where he has been staying for 13 months. In the court in Groningen on Wednesday afternoon, he sketches a very negative picture of the treatment he and his fellow asylum seekers receive there. “The behavior of some COA officials is completely reprehensible. Everything is frustrated by the COA. I had a contract to work somewhere, but it was not allowed. It’s very depressing.”
On March 28, some asylum seekers try to raise the problems with the branch director for the umpteenth time, but according to them he does not respond ”for the umpteenth time”. Then about 35 of them start a protest action. They reinforce them by hitting pans with knives and forks. Five of them are then fined by the COA: for four weeks, 13 euros will be cut from their living allowance of 44 euros.
The five asylum seekers are appealing against the fine imposed on them by the COA in the Groningen court. They invoke the right to demonstrate in the Netherlands. Because of the fine they received, they are ‘silenced’.
By making noise, they broke the house rules
COA’s counsel does not dispute that asylum seekers also have the right to demonstrate in the Netherlands. However, there are house rules in the emergency shelter. One of them is that residents should not cause noise nuisance. By hitting pans with cutlery, she says they have broken the rules and a fine is appropriate. “In an emergency shelter where almost 400 people are staying, you have to take each other into account. That’s what the house rules are for. They were informed about this upon arrival.
The judge also dealt with another case in which A. acted alone. He had filmed a fellow asylum seeker on April 16. Due to a fall from a staircase, he was bleeding on the floor in the emergency shelter. In his own words, the victim was not helped by the COA staff. To call for outside help, he made film recordings with his mobile phone, which he sent to a friend outside the shelter.
Security guards from the COA rushed up to accuse him of violating privacy. That is also a house rule. Again he was fined. On the spot, the security guards demanded that he erase the images. A. claimed that he had done so right away.
Lawsuit took a strange turn
A. had traveled by train to the court in Groningen with sixteen others, mostly Syrian asylum seekers. Actually, the two cases served Wednesday last week, but the storm pushed them forward a week. The asylum seekers were assisted by activists from MiGreat, an organization that works for migration.
In a not too strong argument, the counsel for the asylum seekers, the Asser lawyer Pim Fischer, tried to convince the judge that fines had been wrongly imposed on his clients. When asked by the judge whether he was aware of similar cases in case law, in which the right to demonstrate was placed above causing noise nuisance in a confined space, he was unable to answer. He was not aware of any case law in this area.
The case about the violation of privacy took a strange turn when A.’s Syrian interpreter went to court of his own accord to show him a photo of the bleeding victim. This should show that A. had not filmed his face. ,,But you just said that you immediately erased the footage”, judge A. threw at her feet. After which he confessed that he had fished it out of the trash can of his mobile phone.
‘I’ve lost all my hope’
The case ended rather tragically when A. explained that he had come to the Netherlands with “big dreams”. After 13 months on hold, there would be nothing left of that now. “I have almost lost all hope. The only hope I have left is to bring my children from Syria.”
The judge informed him that he could not take into account the circumstances in which he finds himself in his ruling. He can only base this on the violation of COA’s house rules.
Sentence in six weeks.