What started as a temporary action has now been going on for a year and a half: volunteers, pastors and stakeholders hold church services day and night in the Protestant community of Open Hof in Kampen. In this way they protect the Uzbek family Babayants from Emmen who have exhausted all legal remedies against deportation.
About 3,000 people from all over the country now participate in the church shelter. About fifty volunteers are needed every day to make the uninterrupted church services possible.
“When we started it, we went into it openly with the hope that a solution would be found quickly,” says pastor and initiator Kasper Jager. “We never could have imagined that it would ultimately take a year and a half.”
The Babayants family fled Uzbekistan eleven years ago and ended up in the Netherlands. The family with four children lived in the asylum seeker center in Emmen for eight years. They felt at home there and had their social life there.
The application for residence status was rejected twice. Because the family was in danger of being deported, the family turned to the church in Kampen and was granted church asylum in November 2024. A continuous church service is held, which must not be disturbed. By keeping the service going continuously, the church can prevent the family from being deported.
“You see a movement emerging that calls for more humanity,” says Jager about the church shelter. “It is a hopeful action that connects people. Within our local community, people are growing closer to each other, but people are also joining us from all over the Netherlands. Church and non-church people. It is starting a movement of soft forces.”
The Babayants family has been living within the walls of the church all this time. According to Jager, that demands a lot from the family. “It’s tough for them. Living within the walls of a church for a year and a half, you can hardly imagine what that must be like.”
“At the same time, they do that admirably. They keep their spirits up and still hope that a solution will be found. Not only for them, but also for other rooted children in the same situation,” said Jager.
The church shelter runs entirely on volunteers from all over the Netherlands. “It is not without reason that so many people come here,” says Jager. “That’s what it’s all about: all those volunteers who ensure that a service is available here 24 hours a day.”
According to the pastor, the initiative has now become more than just helping one family. “I am not only involved in it professionally, but also from my heart and soul. You can say that this is now my life’s work.”
The Open Hof district community recently received the Over Hoop Prize, worth 25,000 euros. The church wants to use that money to draw extra attention to the case, including with actions in The Hague.