A continuous church service aimed at preventing an Armenian family from being deported from The Netherlands ended on Wednesday after 96 days when the government agreed not go ahead with the deportation while their case is reviewed.
Hundreds of supporters of the Tamrazyan family have been involved in the services at the Bethel Church in The Hague since 26th October, taking advantage of a law that prevents police from entering a place of worship while a service is in progress.
But late on Tuesday, the Dutch cabinet agreed to review the cases of more than 600 children, some of whom were born in the country, whose applications for asylum were rejected despite in some cases living in the country for years. The government has also said it will not deport any affected children or their families while the review is underway and will look to speed up asylum procedures to ensure other families who have applied for asylum in the country don’t take root in the country.
Theo Hettema, a spokesman for the Protestant church in The Hague, reportedly said while the church was grateful that hundreds of refugee families will now have a future in The Netherlands, they were worried about the consequences on future immigration policy.
The Tamrazyan family of five had lived in The Netherlands for nine years after fleeing Armenia because the father’s political activism had endangered them.
