Is there no place for 60 refugees?

For the past two years, since September 19 2012, a group of asylum-seekers have been wandering amidst precarious lodgings in The Hague, some sixty men from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Egypt. “These people followed all the procedures for asylum-request, but they didn’t obtain a permission to stay, so they should now leave The Netherlands”, Daphne van Roosendaal, responsible of the press office in the diocese of Rotterdam, to which the Dutch city belongs, told SIR Europe. “Some of them have lived here many years, but they cannot return to their home countries because of wars or because their government is unwilling to receive them”, van Roosendaal went on. A few days ago firemen authorities released a statement of non-compliance of the Most Holy Sacrament church, which was occupied for almost 2 years. On September 2 the church was vacated. All sixty asylum-seekers are now living in a shelter for the homeless. If they want a future, they will have to reveal their identities and start the procedures from scrap, now that the government has said it is willing to do so. Eight people, in the fear of forced repatriation, have preferred not to declared their identities. Now they are living in the streets. For how long were these people living in the church of the Most Holy Sacrament? “It all began in September 2012 – van Roosendaal said -: after three months of protests, a group of asylum-seekers set up an encampment in a park, the Koekamp, near the central Station in The Hague. A court ruling of September 19 2012 granted them the possibility of staying in the encampment provided that tents remained open for security reasons. But the police forced their way and evacuated the encampment on December 13 on the order of the Mayor on the grounds that the settlement would not be a safe place to be during the winter. With the support of the group Right to Exist (Recht op Bestaan), rioters announced that they would continue their protests in a different site. In fact, on January 12 2012 they entered a church where religious services had not been held since 2008 with the help of some squatters. However, the parish had not been informed. The squatters broke into the church and invited the refugees to occupy the building.” How did the Catholic community react? “The parish community that is the owner of the church and the diocese of Rotterdam gave hospitality to these people for humanitarian reasons, but they were concerned about security, as the building was in disuse for a long time and was not equipped to provide safe shelter. For example, the electronic system was a problem. For this reason the parish has decided to make all the necessary adjustments. Regular controls to the structure were carried out, and local authorities were asked to do the same. The parish and the diocese have always made sure that the people sheltered inside the church had enough food.”  How did citizens get involved?  “Many people brought food, and some neighbours from the church opened their showers and their sanitary facilities, since the possibility of accessing hot water was very limited inside the church. They also offered a certain amount of sanitary assistance. Spending two years in that church made these people exhausted.” What are the prospects now?  “The government promised to examine every single case again to see whether it’s possible for these people to stay in The Netherlands.” What is the Christian community doing? “60 people were transferred in a centre of the Salvation Army over the past days, in The Hague. There they will be able to stay for the next two months. People and associations, including members of Council of Churches, continue taking care of them.” What has been the role of the bishop in this event? “The bishop was deeply concerned over their security inside the church, and advocated their requests which he conveyed to the local authorities, to grant the refugees a better future, respectful of the human dignity of each person. The bishop also insisted about the need to find a concrete perspective for reception, instead of continuing with precarious solutions. Now the government will verify all individual cases once more.”