Refugees flee to find fear and poverty
By Thor Kerr
THE HAGUE (JP): They fled suspicion and fear in Iran only to find poverty and fear in the Netherlands.
Ten asylum seekers huddle in a tiny office waiting for the next offer of shelter. Their suitcases are packed, ready to go. Welcome to life on the run.
Several hundred Iranians live like this in the Netherlands. Their applications for political asylum have failed but Dutch authorities are too embarrassed to deport them.
Some failed applicants who refuse to leave voluntarily are jailed. Those still in asylum centers live with constant fear of deportation. Others, kicked out of the centers with no money and nowhere to go, survive on church handouts and charity.
This is a far cry from the comforts of the welfare system which the Dutch government is famous for. Dutch citizens and permanent residents can enjoy government pensions, unemployment benefits and almost free health care and education.
Robbin te Velde of Prime organization, which assists asylum seekers, says the Dutch government does not care about people seeking political asylum.
"Many asylum seekers live in fear that their applications (for refugee status) will fail and they will be sent home. At least 11 Iranians have committed suicide since mid 1996 and hundreds have gone on hunger strike, some for more than 60 days."
"The government is knocking back applications for asylum because it says Iran is a safe country. It does this by showing that less people are being killed by the Iranian government now than in the first years of the revolution (from 1979)," te Velde said Saturday.
The Dutch government's most recent report on Iran says that only 55 people were executed by the authorities in 1995. This is down from many thousands in the early 1980s.
Amnesty International reported in 1996: "Just as in previous years the actual number of executions (in 1995) because of political and non-political crimes... is probably much higher than the official figures."
Amnesty International, the UN special rapporteur on human rights and Human Rights Watch all say that levels of human rights abuse in Iran are alarming.
The trouble with the Dutch government's definition of "safe country" is that it only counts official executions, "not the Hezbollah's street executions," says one Iranian refugee. Hezbollah's four million members rule the streets of Iran under direction of the Khomeini, the supreme religious leader.
The refugee, a young architect, said he was beaten up twice by Hezbollah men in Tehran for changing his religion and criticizing the state. The second time he was left in the street for dead.
It cost him US$6,000 to get out of the country: $2,000 for a false passport, $2,000 to bribe an Iranian immigration officer and $2,000 for airfares.
He is now wondering if it was worth it given the way Dutch authorities are treating him.
"They made fun of me... Last year I have first negative (response to an application for asylum) so I went on a hunger strike... After 32 days, the secretary of state sent me a letter saying that they will take my case seriously," he said.
Almost a year later, this refugee is still waiting to hear whether he will get political asylum.
Big business
Many refugees complain about the conditions they endure while waiting for asylum applications to be processed. They say that accommodation and food is poor at state-funded asylum centers.
The Dutch government spends 1.1 billion guilders a year on food and accommodation for refugees. Many wonder where all this money goes. It is supposed to pay the contractors which run asylum centers.
Some refugees say that contractors are skimping on services to make more money and that those who complain end up on the streets, fending for themselves with no money and little support.
Conditions are so bad at one center that a sit-in protest in April over poor conditions led to a police raid that left 28 refugees injured.
But Robbin te Velde said, "The biggest problem is not material well being but psychological well being. These people just don't feel safe in the Netherlands, like in Iran. They can be deported any day, they don't trust their neighbors and they are being treated like little children. Their legal position is very weak."
More than 5,000 Iranian refugees now live in the Netherlands. Only 5 to 10 percent of these are expected to gain asylum, through a process which takes at least three years and can be very traumatic.
Many refugees say that government interviewers don't take their claims seriously, verbally abuse them and accuse them of coming to the Netherlands for money.
They say they came for protection but have wound up being treated like criminals.