The Netherlands

Church holds a nonstop service to stop family from being deported

A Protestant church in the Netherlands has launched an expansive effort to prevent a family’s deportation to Armenia, a former Soviet republic near Turkey and Georgia.

Since October, the Hague-based Bethel Church has held an uninterrupted service to prevent authorities from entering the premises and deporting the family living there.

According to Dutch law, police officers are not allowed to enter churches while services are ongoing.

“In the coming hours — day and night — people from all over the country will be serving in the Bethel neighbourhood-and-church house,” an announcement on the church’s website has read since October 26.

To the Bethel Church community, using that legal loophole appeared to be the only option after the family were notified of their looming deportation in September.

The Tamrazyan family fled Armenia nine years ago because the father, Sasun Tamrazyan, started to receive death threats over his political activism, according to his claim for political asylum. The family was initially granted asylum but was not allowed to stay beyond this year.

Officials rejected the family’s request to make use of a pardon option for families who have lived in the Netherlands for more than five years.

The Dutch Ministry of Justice did not respond to a request for comment.

Bethel community members told Dutch media outlets that their voluntary decision to organise a non-stop service was based on humanitarian considerations, and not on the family’s Christian beliefs.

Church officials said the family’s request to be housed on their premises and the unwillingness of the Government to change course had put them into a dilemma, forcing them to choose “between respect for the Government and protecting the rights of a child”.

The church, they wrote in a statement, was seeking a dialogue with the Government on the deportation of refugees who entered the country as minors.

“The children who are concerned are not at all to blame. We are there for them. And we are confident that ultimately our politicians want a human solution,” they wrote.