De Fabel van de illegaal 63, March/April 2004
Authors: Ellen de Waard and Harry Westerink
Dutch Immigration minister Verdonk wants to deport tens of thousands of refugees. Only some 2.100 are allowed to stay. They meet the harsh criteria of Verdonk's amnesty arrangement.(1) Consistent with the general style of the current government she continually repeats that it is "the own responsibility" of refugees "to leave". But most of them cannot go back or simply do not want to.
The harsh new deportation policy was presented in November 2003 in the "Terugkeernota" ("return paper"). The paper stresses the need for propaganda campaigns to promote the new policy. Verdonk's slogan "He who wants to go back, can go back" should get generally accepted and forced upon the refugees themselves. From the minute they arrive refugees should be continually getting the message: "Being rejected means to return".
Verdonk is going to more strictly separate "refugees with chances" from those "without much of a chance" on a residence permit, or in other words: those who may possibly stay from those who will almost certainly be deported. After they have requested asylum, refugees will first be housed in "orientation centers". The immigration service IND nowadays at first rejects almost all requests. All these rejected refugees will be moved immediately to "return centers". Although their asylum procedures will continue to run and although they can still appeal the decision, their living standards are willingly made worse. "In that way the government wants to make clear to them that they will almost certainly not get a residence permit and that they most probably will have to leave the Netherlands."(2) In "orientation centers" the services will be "oriented on the Netherlands" and in the "return centers" on "a future in their own country".
According to the paper all personnel will have to chose carefully between working in one or the other type of center. For "communication and attitude of the personnel" would "be especially important in determining" the impression refugees get from the Dutch government. Employees who still show some compassion now seem to form an unwanted company risk. In the "return centers" Verdonk only wants to employ workers who are really motivated to get rid of refugees. "Except for better motivated employees, that has the effect that no longer double signals are being send to the asylum seekers about the wishfulness of their stay in the Netherlands. In the return locations specialized teams can work on stimulating autonomous return and the acquirement of the right identity and nationality data."
Streets
On January 23 2004 parliament accepted Verdonk's plans to deport about 26.000 refugees who have been living in the Netherlands for a long time. The next three years, they will all have to "return" to their countries of origin. They get 8 weeks to "voluntary return" and will in that case get some money and a flight ticket. If they do not cooperate, the foreign police will take them away from their houses or shelters and will bring them to new "leave centers" which all together will have room for 1.500 refugees. According to official refugee support organization VluchtelingenWerk these "leave centers" are in fact the same as the "return centers" to which refugees are moved who have gotten their first rejection, but who still have procedures running.(3)
In the "leave centers" refugees will again be put under pressure to "return", again for 8 weeks. If the government, for whatever reason, doesn't succeed in deporting them, they will simply be thrown onto the streets. City councils are strictly forbidden to give these people any shelter anymore. The Association of Dutch Cities (VNG) and Verdonk recently agreed on that. According to immigration law rejected refugees only still get a residence permit when they can prove that their country of origin doesn't want them back. Refugees only very seldom manage to actually prove that. However, in Verdonk's paper even this "not their fault" criteria is scrapped. "It is a fact that all undocumented foreigners in the Netherlands, including rejected refugees, who want to go back, actually can go back."(2) The cynical starting point that in principle the refugees are always themselves to blame, gave way to angry reactions from church refugee support organization Inlia (4) and official refugee support organization VluchtelingenWerk (3). They point out that in the nineties the precursor to the current "leave centers", "expulsion center" Ter Apel, turned out to be an inhumane disaster.(5)
With her harsh plans the minister wants to "make refugees think differently" and "make them take their own responsibility to return".(2) But the countries of origin are often not cooperative enough, she thinks. They often refuse to take their citizens back. "Many countries of origin consider the effect of all forms of migrations positive. There's tension between the Dutch policy to keep migration under control and the policy of the countries of origin." According to Verdonk governmental "return work" should be targeted on "problem countries" like Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, China, Congo, Guinea, Iran, Nigeria, Serbia and Syria. If countries "are not showing the will to cooperate with returning and taking refugees back, we will investigate the possibilities to put pressure on them".
Anger
The attitude of city councils towards rejected refugees is extremely hypocrite. Earlier the pleaded for a large amnesty for some 9.000 refugees, especially "harrowing cases" of families with children who were born in the Netherlands and are completely "integrated". The four major cities and the northern provinces of Groningen and Friesland in December 2003 refused to dump refugees on the streets. Now however, the Association of Dutch Cities (VNG) says it's "satisfied" that the government "is taking its responsibility" and is implementing "a more active deportation policy".(6) But this policy victimizes exactly those refugees which the councils earlier wanted to be included in the amnesty arrangement. In short, the last couple of months councils have been supporting protests for purely opportunistic reasons, only to get rid of "the problem" of the rejected refugees.
In the beginning of January 2004 VNG chairman and Dordrecht mayor Bandell immediately called the "leave centers" "humane", although it is still completely unclear how many centers there will be, where they will be and what they will actually look like. According to him they will be "reasonably closed centers". However, such centers are illegal according to international law, especially the children's rights treaty. Although the councils have agreed upon the largest post war deportation campaign, many concerned citizens and organizations are getting more angry. They are mad at ruthless Verdonk and the underhand operating councils. Many refugees are very angry and a lot of them have started panicking.
Next to new centers, Verdonk also wants to extend already existing repressive practices against refugees. Border control must be intensified to be better able to refuse refugees even before they've entered the Netherlands. The government therefore wants to put biometric characteristics - such as fingerprints and iris scans - in a database. "In Europe the Netherlands support the development of an European Visa Information System (VIS) in which biometric characteristics are collected of all people applying for visa. The VIS is meant to limit visa fraud, to enhance the border control of visa holders, and enlarge the chances of identification of undocumented foreigners."(2) The VIS will be coupled to the Schengen Information System (SIS) and is supposed to be put in use in 2007. On request of the Dutch government the European Committee proposed to already start adding biometric characteristics to visa and residence permits. Verdonk furthermore raises the fines for airlines who bring in refugees without all identity papers. These companies will also have to pay the costs of living for the refugees until they are actually deported. The minister also wants to intensify the hunt for the undocumented. In 2004 a thousand extra police officers will be put on this job.
Notes