A months-long, round-the-clock church service in a Dutch Protestant church ended yesterday in victory.
Bethel Church in The Hague had been conducting continuous worship since October 26, 2018, in support of a family of Armenian asylum-seekers who had taken refuge there.
The Tamrazyan family, comprising the parents, two daughters and a son, had lived in the Netherlands for nine years but faced deportation. They said their lives would be in danger if they were forced to return to Armenia, where Sasun, the father, had been a political activist.
Dutch law forbids authorities from entering a church while worship is in progress, and a team of ministers and congregants had ensured the family's protection.
The church announced: 'A political agreement has been reached, that ensures a future in The Netherlands for over 600 refugee children who have been born or who grew up in our country.' It said the agreement 'provides the Tamrazyan family and over 600 other children with a future in our country'.
The Dutch government is to examine the cases of 700 children and their families facing deportation. Residency rights were likely to be granted in 630 cases, it said. The church has been told this includes the Tamrazyans.
'We are incredibly grateful for a safe future in the Netherlands for hundreds of refugee families,' said Theo Hettema, chair of the General Council of the Protestant Church in The Hague. However, he he also expressed his concern about the government's wider immigration policy.
The debate around the Tamrazyan family focused on the application of the 'kinderpardon' rule, an inconsistently applied dispensation allowing residence rights to families with children who had lived in the Netherlands for five years. The amnesty will also see this dispensation taken off the statue books. The government has also reduced the number of people eligible for relocation from UN refugee camps, from 750 a year to 500.
The fight over the 'children's pardon' put pressure on Prime Minister Mark Rutte's centre-right government, which has only a one-seat majority in parliament's Lower House, and looks set to lose its Senate majority in a March 20 election.
Rutte's Liberal party is trying to present a tough stance on immigration, to avoid losing ground to opposition parties such as the anti-Islam party of Geert Wilders.
Although Tuesday's decision was good news for the Tamrazyans, it came days too late for another family, the Grigoryans. That family of five, with children aged three to eight, was deported to Armenia early last week, just as the cabinet began deliberating on the issue.
'This is unfair and very painful,' their lawyer told Dutch news agency ANP on Wednesday.
'If their deportation had been postponed a few days, the family would have been allowed to stay.'
Additional reporting by Reuters.
