Linssen stood for an almost full room, with the Babayants and other visitors as an audience. The presenter gave a sermon and sang specially written songs for the Babayants family. That touched them deep. “I think this is very special. I am also very grateful that we can experience this,” the14-year-old Ariana Babayants tells RTV Oost.
Linssen wrote one of the songs after an earlier conversation with Ariana made a deep impression on him. The song could be heard during the service. “I was introduced to musicians in Kampen and asked them to perform with me. So in a few days we founded a band with especially Kampen musicians to nominate the song,” Linssen says. “It was very beautiful,” Ariana looks back, who was moving to the performance to tears.
The Uzbeek family comes from Emmen, where it was in an asylum seekers’ center for eight years. Last summer the family was put in detention, just before they were flown to Uzbekistan, the judge put a stop to deportation due to an objection procedure. Now, deportation is still threatening, if a new asylum application is rejected, you can proceed with any time. Church shelter can prevent this by continuously keeping a church service going. The government is not allowed to interrupt church services and get people who get asylum out.
Because of the impact that the story of the family has on Linssen, he makes a one-off TV program about the situation of the family: Joris and the undocumented. August 31 this special episode will be broadcast on NPO 2.