It is a complex operation: keeping a church service going 24 hours a day, so that a refugee family from Emmen cannot be deported. That is what the church shelter in Kampen is all about. A special form of help, which has now been going on for a year.
“I certainly never thought it would take so long,” Herman Stomphorst admits. He is the coordinator of the church shelter. “Maybe three months. That was our expectation. But that another nine months would be added? We could never have imagined that. And that is of course far too long.”
By this, Stomphorst refers to the uncertain situation of the Babayants family from Emmen. They fled from 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.
The application for residence status was rejected twice. According to the IND, Uzbekistan is safe enough to return to. Last year the family was in danger of being deported. That was canceled at the last minute thanks to an emergency hearing, but it was all about postponement, not cancellation.
Because the Babayants family could still be deported, the family knocked on the door of the church in Kampen. The Protestant community decided in November 2024 to grant church asylum and to hold a continuous church service.
“50 people are needed every day to keep things running. And that has been the case for a year. I have calculated that two thousand different people have now offered their help,” Stomphorst sums up.
“From Harlingen to the bottom of Limburg, from Terneuzen to Delfzijl: volunteers come from everywhere and that is really heart-warming.”
Despite the efforts of all those people in the Netherlands, Stomphorst remains critical of the situation. “Rooted children, who have been living in the Netherlands for more than five years, should not be treated this way. How can the Babayants children, who have been living in the Netherlands for eleven years now, still be deported?”
Moreover, the uncertain situation affects not only the Babayants family, but also their closest friends. Stomphorst saw it with his own eyes last year. He was there when the family was deported from Emmen last year and locked up for a night in a cell complex in Zeist.
“Aram’s football team, Ariana and Amelia’s dance friends: they all stood around the prison wall. They shouted: ‘You belong to us!’. They couldn’t say goodbye. Their friends were suddenly gone. That image cut through my soul and I will never forget it.”
No matter how dire the situation is, thanks to the efforts of all those volunteers who spontaneously register from all over the country, Stomphorst also sees beautiful things happening. “I hear from people that they get inspired. Because doing something for someone else, for and with people you don’t even know, connects.”
Like the Babayants family, Stomphorst hopes that a new political policy, with D66 at the helm, will bring about a turnaround. “We continue to hope that humanity will return. That these children will ultimately be allowed to stay in the Netherlands. That is our hope and that is our expectation.”