International

Because of the extreme insecurity which prevails in the country, a stop must for the time being be put to deportations to Afghanistan of persons refused refugee status, according to SP Member of Parliament Jasper van Dijk. On Wednesday, Van Dijk accepted a petition from the 18-year old Afghan Haroon Rezaie.

Two years ago Haroon and his family fled their homeland to escape the Taliban. Since then Haroon has lived in Maastricht, attended school there, and learnt to speak good Dutch. It took him just half a week to collect 16,000 signatures for his petition.

The government has labelled Afghanistan a safe country and wants to deport Haroon along with his family. “That's quite bizarre,” says Van Dijk, “given the extreme insecurity which prevails there. The United Nations states unequivocally that Afghanistan is a country at war. Germany has stopped deporting people to Afghanistan. Amnesty International published a report on the increasing violence there and calling for an end to deportations. Last year alone 600,000 people fled Afghanistan.”

Haroon's life would not be safe were he to return to his native land. In the meantime the Dutch government is working on a new official situation report on Afghanistan. Such reports specify whether or not a country is considered safe or not. But until that is complete, the government will continue the deportations. In the forthcoming budgetary debate on asylum, the SP will argue for a a suspension of deportations to Afghanistan until the new report is available and a fresh policy adopted.