Analyzing Undocumented Life: Iraqis Seeking Recognition in the Netherlands

Analyzing Undocumented Life: Iraqis Seeking Recognition in the Netherlands

by

Jennifer R. Delaney

Leiden University College The Hague

2014

Abstract

This project analyzes the experiences of Iraqi refugees currently residing without documentation

in the Netherlands by exploring the lived experiences of failed asylum seekers and the perceived

obstacles and dilemmas they face due to their not having regular status. This thesis coincides

with the launch of the pan-European Campaign to Improve the Protection of Stateless Persons in

Europe, an initiative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) set to

launch in October 2014. The larger significance of this study works on themes relevant to this

campaign at the micro-level rather than at the macro-policy or institutional level. The study

further draws on the latest UNHCR’s Eligibility Guidelines for Assessing the International

Protection Needs of Iraqi Asylum-seekers, and compares these with the actual policies of The

Netherlands in handling Iraqi asylum seekers’ claims for refugee status. This thesis is a

qualitative study, with the primary data source being interviews conducted with Iraqi refugees

who currently reside at the Vluchthuis, an abandoned church in the city of The Hague, the Dutch

political capital. These men are currently refusing to voluntarily return to Iraq when they feel

their safety cannot be ensured. The study relies on a thorough review of literature and policy

surrounding Dutch refugee policies, in relation to their accordance or non-compliance with

international human rights standards. It was found that stricter Dutch asylum policies are a)

pushing irregular migrants further underground, and b) contributing to a widespread feeling of

discontent, isolation, and fear amongst those affected. However, the research undertaken with

this particular group equally demonstrated the determination and creative drive of undocumented

survival, and the methods employed to organize their own living spaces and to advocate for their

basic rights. Thus the study concludes that despite all the obstacles in obtaining legal status,

undocumented people generally should be recognized as having some capacity to improve their

own lives and indeed have proven to do so. Given the current knowledge base, this paper’s

primary intention is to give voice to a people displaced by a flawed system.

ii

Table of Contents

Abstract ii

Table of Content iii

Acknowledgments v

Chapter 1: A troubled history

Introduction 1

1.1 Who are the undocumented? 1

1.2 Iraq in context 4

1.3 From reception to rejection: Netherlands policies on Iraqis 5

1.4 The International City of Peace and Justice vs. the Undocumented 8

Conclusion 9

Chapter 2: Decision making

Introduction 11

2.1 Asylum Policy Making in the Netherlands 11

2.2 The UNHCR Guidelines 14

2.3 The right to stay vs. The right to expel 16

Conclusion 18

Chapter 3: Methodology

Introduction 19

3.1 How this study was conducted 20

3.2 Reflection on how to research vulnerable informants 22

Conclusion 24

iii

Chapter 4: Key findings

Introduction 25

4.1 A daily struggle 25

4.2 Effects of Government policy: social exclusion and isolation 28

4.3 Identity, Community and Resilience 32

Conclusion 35

Chapter 5: General reflections and conclusions 37

Bibliography 40

iv

Acknowledgments

First and foremost I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Helen Hintjens whose advise was

crucial to the development of this study. Her dedication as an academic to write about the

thousands of individuals affected by unjust refugee policies has been an inspiration and I am

eternally grateful for her support. I would also like to thank Dr. Henrike Florusbosch for taking

the time to read my thesis and offer suggestions. To my two translators, Hoba Gull and Karima

Hashim Shata, who’s presence was incredibly beneficial to gaining the full story.

This study is dedicated to all the men at the Vluchthuis and the thousands of other refugees

whose voices have yet to be heard.

v

Chapter 1: A troubled history

Introduction

The influx of Iraqi asylum-seekers in The Netherlands since the invasion of Iraq by coalition

forces in May 2003 has led to tighter and stricter measures enforced by the Dutch government on

their handling of Iraqi refugees. The subsequent response by the Iraqi government in 20121 to

refuse forced returnees has led to a political standstill, creating a growing number of

undocumented Iraqis who reside in a legal limbo, officially not existing anywhere. Those

suffering most from this political tug of war are the hundreds of displaced Iraqis living illegally

within the borders of The Netherlands. They live mostly in abandoned churches or parks, hoping

their citizenship will one day be granted. Chapter 1 aims to identify who the undocumented are,

with a focus on Iraqis, providing a historical examination on the relations between The

Netherlands and Iraq since the US lead occupation in 2003 and the subsequent stream of Iraqi

asylum seekers that followed.

1.1 Who are the undocumented?

With various definitions existing to describe irregular peoples, terminological jargon often leads

to some confusion. Additionally, certain terms still employed in both government policy

documents and within academia in reference to immigration and asylum has been seen by some

to create prejudice.2 As I agree that these words do not offer adequate representation of the

1

1 Owen Bowcott, “Iraqi Parliament refuses to accept nationals deported from Europe,” The Guardian, July 2, 2012

2 Matthew R. Pearson, “How ‘undocumented workers’ and ‘illegal aliens’ affect prejudice toward Mexican immigrants,” Social Influence (Psychology Press, 2010) 118-132

people they are meant to represent, such terms as illegal and alien will not be used in this report

(unless in the form of a direct quote). For the sake of clarification we will define the most

reoccurring terminology used in this field below.

Irregular peoples (or irregular migrants) are typically defined as “foreign nationals without any

legal resident status in the country they are residing in.”3 These can include failed asylum seekers

or immigrants who have entered or stayed in a country without following proper governmental

procedures. An asylum seeker is defined as an individual who is in the process of requesting

refugee status.4 The term refugee is a broad concept, the broader definition including any

individual who has been forced to flee their country of origin due to fear of persecution for

reasons of religion, nationality, political opinion, or war,5 regardless of the result of their official

status. This is exemplified by Al-Rasheed (1994) who indicates that some people feel like

refugees while they are not acknowledged that status.6 Other terminology used include the

stateless and the undocumented. Statelessness in the legal sense describes people who are not

nationals of any state.7 Equally important are those who fall under the category of unwanted

migrant,8 often classified as asylum seekers who have had their asylum application rejected or

2

3 Clandestino Database on Irregular Migration, “Clandestino methodological report,” (2012), http://irregular-migration.net/index.php?id=186

4 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, “Asylum-Seekers,” (2001-2014), http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49c3646c137.html

5 Human Rights Education Associates, “Refugees and Displaced Persons,” http://www.hrea.org/index.php?base_id=153

6 Marjel Van Dijk, “Refugee Belonging in the Netherlands: The story of an Iraqi Refugee woman’s struggle to belong” (Masters diss., University of Amsterdam, 2011).

7 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, “What is Statelessness?” http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49c3646c158.html

8 Helen McCarthy and Agata Patyna, Ed. Siril Berglund, “Migration, Human Rights and Security in Europe,” (paper presented at MRU Student Conference Proceedings for the Migration Research Unit, University College London, 2012), 16.

revoked, often leading to a person becoming undocumented. Statelessness and

undocumentedness thus remain an issue in the case of non-nationals who lack access to even

basic rights.9

Hundreds of thousands of people who have had their asylum applications denied or revoked have

chosen to remain in their country of arrival, often leading unsettled lives without any formal

status. The UNHCR has categorized the various ways by which a person can become stateless

through a) technical and bureaucratic causes; b) causes linked to State succession and

restoration; c) causes linked to discrimination that particularly affect women and children; and d)

causes linked to arbitrary deprivation of nationality.10 It is further stated that: “someone may also

remain stateless, even though the person in question would in theory be eligible for citizenship,

because of bureaucratic and other barriers,11 demonstrating that the line between the

undocumented and the stateless is quite thin. Current estimates place undocumented migrants

between 2 and 3 million within continental Europe, accounting for 10 to 15 percent of the total

population of foreigners.12 In the context of Iraqis in the Netherlands, and for the purpose of this

report, we will mainly refer to the individuals of this study as the undocumented.

3

9 Sergio Carrera and Massimo Merlino, “Undocumented Immigrants and Rights in the EU: Addressing the Gap between Social Science Research and Policy-making in the Stockhold Programme?” Liberty and Security in Europe (2009):11-14

10 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees “Mapping Statelessness in the Netherlands,” (2011), 10

11 Ibid.

12 Peter Stalker, “Migration Trends and Migration Policy in Europe,” in The Migration-Development Index. (International Organization for Migration, 2003.)

1.2 Iraq in context

Ten years after US forces dropped bombs on Baghdad following the 2003 Occupation, Iraq has

rapidly deteriorated into what has now been labeled by many as a fragmented state.13 The initial

call for nations to join the ‘coalition of the willing,’ spearheaded by the United States, did not

gain the support of the Dutch parliament. However, this was ignored by Dutch Prime Minister

Jan-Peter Balkenende, who believed that: “Saddam Hussein had consistently flouted UN

resolutions and possessed weapons of mass destruction.”14 In this context, the Netherlands gave

political support to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, though they had no official military role.15 As a

result of the 2003 invasion, the continued conflict and instability within Iraq has led to the

displacement of an estimated 2.7 million Iraqis, half of whom have fled to other countries

seeking residency and protection.16 Death tolls within the country have continued at horrifying

numbers, with documented records of up to thousands of civilian deaths each year.17 As a result

of this political and social insecurity, Iraqi asylum applications have risen, and continue at

incredibly high numbers (see Figure 1).

4

13 Nawaf Obaid, “Meeting the Challenge of a Fragmented Iraq: A Saudi Perspective,” Center for Strategic and International Studies (2006), http://csis.org/files/media/csis/pubs/060406_iraqsaudi.pdf

14 BBC, “Iraq 10 years on: In numbers,” March 20, 2013, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-21752819

15 BBC, “Dutch inquiry says Iraq war had no mandate,” January 12, 2010, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8453305.stm

16 BBC, “Iraq 10 years on: In numbers,” March 20, 2013

17 Iraq Body Count, “The Trending of Faults: Iraq 2013,” January 1, 2014, http://www.iraqbodycount.org/analysis/beyond/2013/

Figure 1. Iraqi Asylum Applications 2006 - 201118

As will be discussed in Chapter 2, policies in The Netherlands on the handling of Iraqi asylum

seekers have become progressively more restrictive. As relations between Iraq and the

Netherlands have worsened, and attitudes have hardened since 2012, this seems to further

complicate the lives of individual Iraqis seeking asylum, such as those who are the focus of this

study. The US-led war in Iraq has pushed growing numbers of Iraqis, from all regions of the

country, into irregular status,19 causing European decision makers to take a tougher stance on

how to process their asylum requests.

1.3 From reception to rejection: Netherlands policies on Iraqi refugees

At the beginning of the war in 2003, many European governments did welcome tens of

thousands of Iraqi refugees, with many receiving refugee status.20 However, this was often

5

18 BBC, “Iraq 10 years on: In numbers,” March 20, 2013

19 Markus Sperl, “Fortress Europe and the Iraqi ‘intruders’: Iraqi asylum-seekers and the EU, 2003-2007,” United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (2007).

20 Matthew Dalton, “Europe Deports More Iraqis: U.N. Refugee Agency Criticizes Some Nations for Tightening Policies; ‘I’m going to get killed’,” The Wall Street Journal, March 9 2010, http://online.wsj.com/news/articles SB10001424052748704869304575109982502159168

conditional rather than permanent.21 Later on, as a result of increasingly hostile political attitudes

across Europe among governments and voters,22 immigration became more controversial, and

many EU member states shifted their policies on granting refugee status to Iraqis.23 This shift

meant that many earlier asylum applications which had been approved were called back for

reconsideration after several years.24 In June of 2007, the Settlement of the Old Aliens Act Estate

Scheme (commonly known as the Generaal Pardon of 2007) came into effect, granting residency

permits to many asylum seekers whose applications were received prior to April 2001.25 The

pardon applied to individuals who had been in the Netherlands for a period of ten years or longer

and had been previously refused admission but were unable to return to their country of origin.26

This pardon granted residency to many individuals from central and southern Iraq and was seen

as a milestone in addressing the issue of failed asylum applicants living in the Netherlands.27

Though this pardon was seen as a relief for many Iraqi refugees, those who had fled Iraq after the

2003 occupation did not qualify. Ironically, during the same year of the pardon many European

governments began arguing that violence in Iraq had peaked, and that Iraq would soon be safe to

6

21 Interview (telephone) with Ahmed Pouri, PRIME (Participating Refugees in Multicultural Europe), May 21, 2014, The Hague.

22 Elmar Schlüter and Marc Helbling, “Political parties and anti-immigrant prejudice in Europe: A cross-national comparative approach,” Berlin Social Science Center, (2010), http://www.wzb.eu

23 Markus Sperl, “Fortress Europe and the Iraqi ‘intruders’: Iraqi asylum-seekers and the EU, 2003-2007,” United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (2007).

24 Matthew Dalton, “Europe Deports More Iraqis: U.N. Refugee Agency Criticizes Some Nations for Tightening Policies; ‘I’m going to get killed’,” The Wall Street Journal, March 9 2010.

25 Platform for European Red Cross Cooperation on Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Migrants, “Country Update 2007 for the Netherlands,” (2007) http://www.ifrc.org

26 Dutch Council for Refugees, “Annual Report 2007,” (2007), https://www.vluchtelingenwerk.nl

27 Dutch Council for Refugees, “Annual Report 2007,” (2007)

return to.28 Ironically, former State Secretary of Justice Nebahat Albayrak has stated: “the

government faced pressure to tighten its policy on refugees from Iraq and other violence-plagued

countries, as public opinion has become increasingly opposed to immigration.”29

Many EU member states with large numbers of Iraqi refugees have now returned significant

numbers of failed asylum applicants to Iraq against their will, particularity to the northern

Kurdish region,30 but also throughout the country. In 2010, the Netherlands forcibly sent a group

of 35 Iraqi men to Bagdad, a move which resulted in an outcry from Amnesty International.31

With the continuation of forced returns from Europe, and the subsequent criticism from the

UNHCR and other human rights organizations,32 the Iraqi government made the strong stance in

2012 by announcing that they would no longer accept involuntary Iraqi returns from EU member

states.33 However, regardless of the public outcry and lack of cooperation from the Iraqi

government, The Netherlands policy on failed asylum applicants continued to favor returns to the

country. Due to the lack of cooperation from Iraq, however, returns can now only happen on a

voluntary basis (with assistance from IOM and other intermediaries). As clarified by Fred

Teeven, the Minister of Immigration:

7

28 Matthew Dalton, “Europe Deports More Iraqis: U.N. Refugee Agency Criticizes Some Nations for Tightening Policies; ‘I’m going to get killed’,” The Wall Street Journal, March 9 2010.

29 Ibid.

30 Amnesty International, “Netherlands: Stop Forced Returns to Iraq,” (Public Statement, May 20, 2010).

31 Amnesty International, “Urgent Action: Stop Forced Returns to Iraq,” October 29, 2010, (2010).

32 ibid.

33 Owen Bowcott, “Iraqi Parliament refuses to accept nationals deported from Europe,” The Guardian, July 2, 2012, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jul/02/iraq-parliament-deported-nationals-europe

“The return policy of the Netherlands presumes voluntary return of the aliens who must

leave the Netherlands…However, if an alien does not use the opportunity to leave The

Netherlands independently with the help of these projects, a deportation procedure may

start. When an illegal alien has no passport, cooperation of the country of origin is

required to make forced return possible.”34

Although minister Teeven has visited Iraq in an attempt to persuade parliament to reconsider its

position,35 it is still the formal position of the Iraqi government (at the time of completing this

study) to refuse forced returnees, with the Iraqi government stating that: “returns must be with

dignity and respect for their humanity.36 Due to the political rift between the Netherlands and

their policy of return, and the Iraqi government’s refusal to comply, there are currently an

estimated 1,600 undocumented Iraqis living in the Netherlands,37 now belonging to the political

categorization of ‘undocumented.’

1.4 The international city of peace and justice vs. the undocumented

On December 13, 2012, a group of approximately 60 undocumented men, almost entirely Iraqi,

braced the winter cold in a local park (the Koekamp) in The Hague, sipping coffee and speaking

with local activists and journalists in preparation for their forced eviction. A court ruling the day

before had ordered their eviction from the self-constructed protest camp, where they had been

8

34 Government of the Netherlands, “Press Release Teeven visits Iraq,”July 10, 2013, http://www.government.nl/news/2013/07/10/press-release-teeven-visits-iraq.html

35 ibid.

36 Rod Nordland and John F. Burns, “Iraq Sends 41 of 50 Deported Refugees Back to Britain,” The New York Times, October 17, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/18/world/middleeast/18iraq.html

37 Matthew Dalton, “Europe Deports More Iraqis: U.N. Refugee Agency Criticizes Some Nations for Tightening Policies; ‘I’m going to get killed’,” The Wall Street Journal, March 9 2010.

staying for four months in demand that their asylum applications be re-examined.38 The Iraqi

men were the undocumented: failed asylum seekers who refused to voluntarily return to a

country which they believed was no longer safe.39 “If I go back to Iraq I will be killed” one of

the men stated adding: “I have nowhere to go if I’m sent back. I’ve been here now for five years,

this [The Netherlands] is my home.”40 Though the camp got the attention of international news

organizations such as the BBC,41 local media attention leading up to their eviction was somewhat

lacking. The eviction lead to the arrest of 23 men42 and the complete clearing of the camp. After

several hours in the local prison and a bit of paperwork, each asylum seeker was released back

onto the streets, once again homeless and with no place to go. This incident was nothing new to

many of the men arrested. In a system designed to isolate, undocumented people routinely face

embarrassment, detention, arrest, and release, not for breaking any law, but for not having the

right piece of paper.43

1.5 Conclusion

Iraqis have become a very particular case in the larger context of the undocumented due to the

Iraqi parliament blocking forced repatriation of Iraqi refugees from Europe. Though the situation

9

38 Helen Hintjens, “The Hague: Refugees Evicted from Protest Camp,” Institute of Race Relations (2013), http://www.irr.org.uk/news/the-hague-refugees-evicted-from-protest-camp/

39 Jennifer Delaney, “Koekamp Cleared,” The Underground The Hague, December 14, 2012, http://www.theunderground.nl/koekamp-cleared/

40 Interview by Jennifer Delaney, Koekamp, The Hague, December 13, 2012.

41 BBC, “Iraqi refugees arrested in Hague tent camp eviction,” December 13, 2012, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-20717011

42 ibid.

43 Liza Schuster, “The Exclusion of Asylum Seekers in Europe,” Centre on Migration, Policy and Society. University of Oxford (2004), http://www.compas.ox.ac.uk/fileadmin/files/Publications/working_papers/WP_2004/WP0401.pdf

in Iraq is still immensely dangerous (as will be discussed in detail in Chapter 2) The Netherlands

has continued to tighten its policy on refugees and deny asylum applicants from Iraq due to

alleged increased public opinion opposing immigration. In the Dutch capital of The Hague,

known internationally as the International City of Peace and Justice, justice is not being served to

the undocumented men who are forced into a system where they have no where to go. Chapter 2

will further assess the current knowledge base on asylum policies in The Netherlands in relation

to the wider problems facing Iraqi refugees and undocumented people in general.

10

Chapter 2: Decision making

Introduction

This chapter will introduce asylum policy making in The Netherlands and the position on failed

asylum applications and expulsion. We will examine the political tension which has developed

between the Iraqi parliament and the Dutch government in accepting failed Iraqi asylum

applicants and the subsequent creation of the undocumented Iraqi. The debate on the level of

safety in Iraq is analyzed through the latest UNHCR Eligibility Guidelines for Assessing the

International Protection Needs of Iraqi Asylum-Seekers, clearly demonstrating The Netherlands

lack of understanding in its processing of Iraqi refugees.

2.1 Asylum policy-making in The Netherlands

The majority of failed Iraqi asylum seekers interviewed have stated their main reason for

refusing to voluntarily repatriate to Iraq are concerns over their personal safety and/or fear of

persecution or death.44 These claims center as one of the fundamental debates between the

undocumented Iraqis and NGO’s on one side, and the Dutch policy makers on the other, who

have countered this claim by stating that Iraq is now safe to return to.45 The central body of The

Netherlands dealing with asylum applications is the Immigration and Naturalization Service

(IND). Any person arriving in The Netherlands and wishing to apply for asylum is legally

11

44 Interview by Jennifer Delaney with translators Hoba Gull and Karima Hashim Shata, March 7 2014.

45 Martijn van Tol, “Iraqi refugees forced to return home,” Radio Netherlands Worldwide, October 22, 2010, http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/iraqi-refugees-forced-return-home

obliged to report to this organization within 48 hours.46 Though officially only one asylum status

exists in The Netherlands, there are four different grounds on which an individual can be granted

asylum: 1. Refugee status (defined as well rounded fear of persecution for reasons of race,

religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion) 2. Subsidiary

protection 3. Humanitarian Grounds and 4. Categorical protection, which states that applications

will be considered if the country of origin is deemed too unsafe to return to.47 However, the

Dutch government has recently stated asylum on the basis of humanitarian and categorical

grounds will soon to be abolished, with the official website of the Government of the

Netherlands stating that: “National grounds for protection, including categorical protection

policy, will soon be removed from the Aliens Act.”48 This is in spite of the UNHCR’s guidelines

(discussed in 2.2), which see humanitarian protection as an extension of the principle of non-

refoulement, the cornerstone of the 1951 Refugee Convention.49 Furthermore, on 20 January,

2006 the Dutch government announced the end of the temporary protection regime for asylum

seekers from Iraq.50 This policy change was decided upon under the context that forced returns

to the whole of Iraq was “deemed possible.”51 Eleven months later, on 20 December 2006, a

parliamentary motion was put forward requesting to reinstate temporary protection for Iraqi

12

46 European Council on Refugees and Exiles, “Asylum Information Database: National Country Report: The Netherlands,” Asylum Information Database (2013), 12. http:// www.ecre.org/component/ downloads/downloads/743.html

47 Ibid, 10.

48 Government of the Netherlands, “Immigration, Integration and Asylum,” Accessed March 26, 2014. http://www.government.nl/government/coalition-agreement/immigration- integration-and-asylum

49 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, “Advisory Opinion on the Extraterritorial Application of Non-Refoulment Obligations under the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol,” (2007), http://www.refworld.org/pdfid/45f17a1a4.pdf

50 Amnesty International, “The Netherlands: The Detention of Irregular Migrants and Asylum- Seekers,” 2008. Accessed March 27, 2014. https://www.amnesty.nl

51 Ibid, 32

asylum seekers, a request which was approved four months later on 2 April 2007.52 Protection

did not apply, however, to the Kurdistan region of Northern Iraq, which was considered to be

relatively safe.53

As mentioned previously, the situation for Iraqi asylum seekers has become more complex since

2012, with the Iraqi government’s decision to ban forced returns from Europe.54 Under these

pretexts, The Netherlands has now found itself in a difficult position in its administration of

failed Iraqi asylum applicants, leaving those who refuse to voluntarily repatriate in a legal limbo,

to the frustration of Dutch policy makers who are trying to tighten migration within the country.

According to an interview conducted with two employees of the Dutch Council for Refugees,

even further stringencies on the asylum process are set to be instated in the coming years.55 The

current law which allows for multiple appeals for rejected applications is set to be eliminated,

with the aim being to “carefully evaluate whether protection is necessary and, when applications

are rejected, to focus attention on return to the country of origin.”56 Though failed asylum

applicants are still entitled to an appeal, it has been noted that many asylum seekers are not

generally informed about the possibility to appeal.57 Therefore, if an asylum applicant is not

properly informed of his or her rights to appeal within the time allowed for an appeal, and the

13

52 Ibid, 32

53 Matthew Dalton, “Europe Deports More Iraqis: U.N. Refugee Agency Criticizes Some Nations for Tightening Policies; ‘I’m going to get killed’,” The Wall Street Journal, March 9 2010.

54 Owen Bowcott, “Iraqi Parliament refuses to accept nationals deported from Europe,” The Guardian, July 2, 2012. Accessed March 27, 2014.

55 Interview with Herbert de Ruijters at the office of the Dutch Council for Refugees, April 22, 2014

56 Government of the Netherlands, “Immigration, Integration and Asylum,” Accessed March 26, 2014. http://www.government.nl/government/coalition-agreement/immigration- integration-and-asylum

57 European Council on Refugees and Exiles, 16

negative decision on their application becomes final, the asylum seeker is deemed ‘illegal’ and

can be expelled immediately.58

2.2 The UNHCR Guidelines

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has issued several Eligibility

Guidelines in the last several years to assist decision makers in assessing the international

protection needs of asylum seekers.59 The latest report on Iraq was issued in May 2012 and

provides extensive legal interpretations on the current political, social, economic and security

situation in Southern, Central and Northern (Kurdish) Iraq and the subsequent recommendations

for those countries processing Iraqi refugee asylum claims. The report states that the current

situation in Iraq “can be characterized as one of ongoing uncertainty,”60 concluding that the

volatile situation in Iraq does not warrant cessation of refugee status on the basis of Article 1C(5)

of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees.61

The report has a citation database totaling 1,415 references, making it one of the most

comprehensive accounts of the current political situation in Iraq and the subsequent

recommendations to European countries on their assessment of Iraqi asylum-seekers. It explains

the political tensions caused by both religious and ethnic divisions; specific security incident

14

58 European Council on Refugees and Exiles, 29

59 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, “UNHCR Eligibility Guidelines for Assessing the International Protection Needs of Asylum-Seekers from Iraq,”(2012), 57

60 Ibid, 6

61 Ibid, 52

reports from the various geopolitical regions within the country (Central and Southern Iraq and

the Kurdistan region); the numerous state and non-state actors involved in modern day Iraq; and

risk profiles of the various groups who may be targeted if returned.62 The report also includes

investigations into failed asylum seekers who have been returned (voluntarily or forcibly) to Iraq,

stating that: “nearly half a million internally displaced persons and returnees currently reside in

squatter settlements without access to basic necessities such as clean water, electricity, and

sanitation; and often on public land or in public buildings at risk of eviction.”63 Further reports

have been received of returnees being targeted because they do not belong to the majority sect in

their area of return. In some cases, these attacks have been fatal.64

Regardless of these recommendations, The Netherlands has remained strict in its position to

expel failed asylum applicants back to Iraq. As the Government of The Netherlands website

clearly states: “A restrictive and just immigration policy calls for an active, consistent policy on

return. Those who are not permitted to reside here must leave, or they will be expelled. We will

put pressure on countries to readmit their own citizens who have been denied admission to the

Netherlands...[even if these actions] affect trade and development relations with such

countries.”65

15

62 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, “UNHCR Eligibility Guidelines for Assessing the International Protection Needs of Asylum-Seekers from Iraq,”(2012), 14-18

63 Ibid, 52

64 Ibid, 53

65 Government of the Netherlands Official Website, “IX. Immigration, Integration and Asylum,” http://www.government.nl/government/coalition-agreement/immigration-integration-and-asylum

2.3 The right to stay vs. the right to expel

The European Commissioner for Human Rights estimates that the vulnerable situation of

stateless individuals leaves them in a place where they no longer have the right to claim rights,66

with the treatment of individuals as so-called illegal often resulting in serious obstruction of

social rights.67 The Netherlands tightening of immigration control combined with the

development of restrictive asylum policies can leave a person stripped of his or her rights,

casting them outside of the protection of state legislation in a number of ways including: (1) if

he/she receives a negative decision on his/her application for asylum but nonetheless remains in

the country; (2) if he/she enters the territory of a given state in an illegal manner (by bypassing

official border crossings or with falsified documents); or (3) through denationalization.68 The

second point (entry in an illegal manner) can lead to a negative asylum decision, though entering

Europe by other means proves quite difficult due to the restrictions Iraqis face upon entering

Europe legally. In order to stand a chance of being able to enter Europe legally, Iraqis must

obtain a passport and a valid visa. Yet as EU countries do not accept the commonly available ‘S’

series passport due to the large number of available forgeries, even this initial procedure can pose

great difficulties.69 “They must now obtain the new ‘G’ series document, which is only available

from one office in the whole country, situated in dangerous Baghdad.”70 Due to these limiting

16

66 Jelka Zorn, “The right to stay: challenging the policy of detention and deportation,” EuropeanJournal of Social Work, 12(2), 248

67 Amnesty International, “The Netherlands: The Detention of Irregular Migrants and Asylum- Seekers,” (2008), https://www.amnesty.nl/sites/default/files/public/ rap_nederland_vreemdelingendetentie_0.pdf 32

68 Jelka Zorn, 248

69 Markus Sperl, 3

70 Markus Sperl, 3

restrictions, illegal entry remains one of the only ways for Iraqi refugees to enter Europe, placing

Iraqi refugees at the hands of a flawed system which prioritizes their expulsion over their

protection.

The Dutch government response to the growing number of failed asylum seekers has been seen

as a violation of international human rights and refugee laws,71 drawing the question: who has

the right to stay, and who has the right to expel? In the case of Iraq, with the country refusing to

accept involuntary returns, the Dutch government seems to be at a standstill, with no one really

knowing what to do with the undocumented. Interviews conducted with politicians and members

of the Dutch Council for Refugees have stated that the policy of the majority Dutch government

continues to be focused on expulsion, regardless of the suggestions and reports offered by the

UNHCR72 and Amnesty International73. As Inge Vianen of the Green Party stated in an

interview in March 2013: “The Green Party is very concerned about the position of

undocumented people in the Netherlands at this moment because all kinds of new rules are going

to be set that actually do not promote their rights, leaving them with no protection.”74 Jan Pronk,

former Dutch labour party politician and outspoken critic of strict Dutch asylum policies stated:

“These people have the right to stay, the right to work, and the right to live.”75 One of the

greatest concerns surrounding these strict policies on failed asylum applicants is that the loss of

17

71 Massimo Merlino and Joanna Parkin, “Fundamental and Human Rights Framework: Protecting Irregular Migrants in the EU,” Center for European Policy Study

72 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, “UNHCR Eligibility Guidelines for Assessing the International Protection Needs of Asylum-Seekers from Iraq,”(2012)

73 Amnesty International, “Urgent Action: Stop Forced Returns to Iraq,” October 29, 2010, (2010).

74 Interview with Inge Vianen, at Vluchthuis, February 17, 2013

75 Interview with Jan Pronk at Vluchthuis open day, February 17, 2013

citizenship rights can lead to a complete loss of human rights, being the right to stay, the right to

appropriate non-emergency health care, the right to work and cross borders, the right to freedom

from detention and the right to political participation.76

Conclusion

The right to stay, according to The Netherlands, is in many ways based on their opinions on the

level of danger faced in an asylum applicants country of origin. The problem for many Iraqis,

however, is that it appears increasingly more difficult for them to prove that they will be in

danger if returned.77 Some reports have even stated that: “asylum seekers with written

documentation of their threats are rejected by the Dutch authorities.”78 Nearly every

undocumented Iraqi interviewed for this study stated that their main reason for refusing to

voluntarily be repatriated to Iraq are concerns over their personal safety and fear of persecution

or death,79 sentiments which have indeed been proven through intensive investigative reports

conducted by the UNHCR and Amnesty International. Regardless of this reality, The Netherlands

continues to claim that Iraq is safe, pushing its policies of forced repatriation. This, in

combination with the current position of Iraq to not accept forced returns, has facilitated the

creation of the undocumented Iraqi in the Netherlands.

18

76 Jelka Zorn, 256

77 Matthew Dalton, “Europe Deports More Iraqis: U.N. Refugee Agency Criticizes Some Nations for Tightening Policies; ‘I’m going to get killed’,” The Wall Street Journal, March 9 2010.

78 Matthew Dalton, “Europe Deports More Iraqis: U.N. Refugee Agency Criticizes Some Nations for Tightening Policies; ‘I’m going to get killed’,” The Wall Street Journal, March 9 2010.

79 Interview at the Vluchthuis, March 7, 2014.

Chapter 3 - Methodology

Introduction

In this chapter, I will introduce the setting of the ‘Vluchthuis’. This building was formerly the

Blessed Sacrament Church and is located on Sportlaan in The Hague. The building has hosted

between 35 and 85 undocumented people, including a significant number of Iraqis, since their

eviction in mid-December 2012 from the Koekamp area near Central Station (see Chapter 2 for

more details). In this chapter the location, which was the primary setting for almost all the

interviews conducted, is elaborated on as well as the methods and constraints for the researcher.

This study is based on empirical research, which can be defined as a method used to gain

knowledge through direct observation and/or experience.80 More specifically I chose the method

of interpretive empirical research, as defined in Schwartz-Shea and Yanow’s useful study:

Interpretive Research Design: Concepts and Processes.81 As the authors of this study say, these

methods “lay out the grounding for the design of research projects that build on interpretive

methodological presuppositions.”82

3.1. How this study was conducted

In 2013-2014, I decided to work with Iraqi men who are currently squatting in a formerly

disused church, located in one of the outlying areas of the Dutch capital city, The Hague. To

ensure that the authentic stories of each interviewee were adequately conveyed, the methods in

19

80 Peregrine Schwartz-Shea and Dvora Yanow, “Interpretive Research Design: Concepts and Processes,” New York,:NY:Routledge (2012), 19.

81 Schwartz-Shea and Yanow, “Interpretive Research Design: Concepts and Processes,” (2012).

82 Ibid, 2.

which I applied my qualitative (interview based) research were drawn from abductive

reasoning,83 in which the framing of the questions and interviewing process allowed room for

flexibility, combining techniques learned at Leiden University College from the disciplines of

Journalism and Sociology. Framing the qualitative process through abductive reasoning (entering

the experience with an open verses predetermined belief) allowed the interviewees a space in

which they were able to significantly contribute their own experiences, while also allowing

myself the freedom to derive new research questions (if needed), positioning myself more freely

within the community and setting under study.84 It is possible that there are multiple perceived

and/or experienced social realities concerning ‘what happened,’ rather than a singular “truth.”85

“Abduction, when faced with potentially surprising facts, looks for meaning-creating rules for a

possibly valid or fitting explanation that removes what is surprising about the facts.”86 Due to the

nature of this thesis a predetermined hypothesis was not set in stone, instead allowing the

abductive interviewing process to determine the hypothesis. As defined by Shea and Yanow:

“This approach reflects a constructivist–interpretivist methodology that rests on a

belief in the existence of (potentially) multiple, intersubjectively constructed ‘truths’

about social, political, cultural, and other human events; and on the belief that these

understandings can only be accessed, or co-generated, through interactions between

20

83 Jo Reichertz , “Abduction, Deduction and Induction in Qualitative Research,” in A Companion to Qualitative Research (2004), 159.

84 Schwartz-Shea and Yanow, 8

85 Schwartz-Shea and Yanow, 11

86 Jo Reichertz, 16

researcher and researched as they seek to interpret those events and make those

interpretations legible to each other.”87

To accurately assess the policy questions that arose from the literature review, a framework by

which to begin the interviewing process was determined based on the literature already available

on the subject of Dutch immigration policy 88. The interviewing process was divided into two

sections: 1) Identification and 2) Experience. The initial interviews (identification) were

established to determine the following: a) who is currently living (permanently or temporarily) at

the church b) from which regions/cities in Iraq do they originate c) when did each individual

arrive in the Netherlands and when/if they applied for residency d) when were their applications

denied or revoked and e) how did that decision happen? The second section of interviews

(experience) relied on the experiences of the interviewee’s themselves, with a focus on their

direct experiences during their time in the Netherlands. Though these interviews were guided,

room for open-ended dialogue was allowed in order to adhere to the interpretive approach as

stated above.

The final analysis and interpretation of the narrative data had the goal of producing two end

results. The first result was to assess and compare the information gained in interviews with the

information provided in Dutch refugee policies to determine how/if and when these policies have

directly impacted those affected. This was seen as imperative to determine if stricter Dutch

asylum policies were pushing undocumented people further underground. In order to analyze and

21

87 Jo Reichertz, 4

88 Immigratie-en Naturalisatiedienst, Ministerie van Veiligheid en Justitie, https://ind.nl

compare policies with experiences, interviews were also conducted with the Dutch Council for

Refugees (Vluchtelingenwerk Nederland) in order to draw comparisons between dates and

documents (policy implementations) with the stories shared by the undocumented.

The main goal of this study was to have the voices of undocumented Iraqis heard, providing an

account of their needs, desires, hopes, goals and experiences within the system of legal limbo

under which they have been placed. Meaning was interpreted from the interviews by identifying

and joining themes, patterns, incidents and terminology that were brought forward throughout

the interviewing process. Themes were allowed to emerge from the data, defining the categories

after this set of interviews was complete. This process allowed for a more in-depth interpretation

of the data, mostly relying on the book Social Research Methods by Alan Bryman (third edition)

alongside Interpretive Research Design: Concepts and Processes by Peregrine Schwartz-Shea

and Dvora Yanow. The main research for this thesis took place over a four month period between

February and May 2014. Earlier interviews were conducted at the Koekamp eviction in

December 2012; at an open day at the church in March 2013; and at an event organized by the

group ‘Critical Collective’ in May 2013.

3.2 Reflecting on how to research vulnerable informants

The chosen methods of fieldwork were in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. Both

proved very time-intensive as well as very fruitful. Group discussions emerged as the preferred

way of communicating among the informants themselves. The first meeting with the group was

informal and helped contextualize understanding, create informal bonds and build trust. This was

22

sometimes difficult, since the men tended to repeat the stories that they had (presumably) told

immigration officers (being stories of justification, or why they believed they should be allowed

to stay). This might have been because the stories were very important in deciding the fate of

these individuals. Rather than conducting a survey, it was felt to be more meaningful in obtaining

original findings by allowing the respondents to talk in a relaxed and informal manner through

semi-structured interviews, which more resembled informal discussions. The first focus group

discussion took place and involved four men, who one week before had volunteered for the

discussion. Having a group discussion seemed to work well, enabling the men I spoke with to

open up and feel comfortable talking, in spite of obstacles of language, life conditions, age and

gender.

It was realized, however, that language barriers could have been excluding others who did not

have a formal command of the English language from joining the discussion. The language

barrier was not unexpected. As a native English speaker with no control or knowledge of the

Dutch, Kurdish or Arabic languages, my initial interviews depended solely on interviewees

whom were comfortable speaking in English. As the group interviews took place in a common

area of the church, anyone could join the circle and contribute to the conversation at any time,

and often times people standing nearby would ask questions in Dutch, which I could not respond

to, at which point they would smile and leave. Due to these apparent language barriers, during

the second focus group I brought two translators, one from northern Iraq and fluent in Kurdish,

Dutch and English, and the other with family from Saudi Arabia and fluent in Arabic, Dutch and

English.

23

Another potential limitation which was anticipated was the gender division between the

researcher and interviewees. All of the individuals staying at the refugee church are men, and the

researcher and both translators are women. It was assumed that the gender divisions could create

some limitations in terms of gaining information. However, this did not appear to be the case.

When comparing my interviews with previous journalistic interviews conducted with male

reporters89, it did not appear that the content was noticeably different.

Conclusion

In the end, the number of individual and group interviews included 12 of a total of around 60

men staying at the Vluchthuis. Following the guidelines from Schwartz-Shea/Yanow and

Reichertz, choosing the abductive/interpretive approach proved to be appropriate for this

particular setting as it allowed the men the opportunity to form their own questions and bring

their own stories, rather then only asking specific, pre-determined questions that may have been

used if another method were employed.

24

89 See: Matthew Dalton, “Europe Deports More Iraqis.” or Jos de Jager, “This the Day Report: 36 hours as life as an illegal.”

Chapter 4: Key findings and Lessons Learned

Introduction

The key findings of this study are divided into three key points. The first point in this chapter

documents the daily lives of the undocumented and the daily difficulties they face. It includes

their opinions and views on the Dutch immigration process; being labelled as an illegal; and their

current psychological state. It also includes a description of their living situation in the church,

providing a view into the daily life of the undocumented. The second point focuses on the policy

which has lead them to where they are today, assessing if indeed more stringent asylum policies

are pushing undocumented people further underground instead of, as intended, encouraging

voluntary repatriation. The third point documents the development in the Vluchthuis over the last

year, including the community which is being formed amongst the undocumented; the breaking

of barriers, being ethnic or religious differences; and the many aspects of resilience and various

coping strategies which the men have utilized to make the most of their current situation.

4.1 A daily struggle

The daily life of the undocumented is not easy, but the men staying at the Vluchthuis have shown

considerable resilience in their daily life strategies. Upon first visiting the church in March 2013,

three months after the men were evicted from the Koekamp, the space was, as expected under

such circumstances, quite chaotic. Makeshift bedding had been provided by volunteers in the

form of hospital style cots and wool blankets, which were squeezed together in the center of the

25

church, providing very little privacy. The common area was adjacent to the kitchen, where

several couches and a small heater were placed next to electric coffee machines. The first thing

you notice upon entering the church is the cold. Barely insulated and with no central heating, the

chill inside left temperatures feeling at around 10 degrees Celsius. The general feeling inside the

church was quite despairing. At this point, the men had been living in the church for around two

months, with many of them doubted how long they would be allowed to stay. “We always move,

I am use to it now” 90 one man told me while warming his hands next to a small heater. When

asked where he would go next if they did have to move he merely shrugged his shoulders:

“Nobody cares where I go. I don’t care now where I go.”91 This sense of apathy is not surprising.

In a study published for the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease on post-migration living

problems and common psychiatric disorders in Iraqi asylum seekers, it was found that the

majority of those interviewed felt uncertainty about the future.92 The main findings of the study,

which included interviews with two groups of adult Iraqi asylum seekers in the Netherlands,

found that: “worries about the asylum procedure, lack of work, and family related issues were

the most important risk factors for psychopathology among Iraqi asylum seekers.”93

The daily struggle for the undocumented is not only a struggle to survive: to find food, fresh

water, and shelter, but also to avoid arbitrary arrest and detention. As one of the men interviewed

explained: “After leaving the first detention center I had nowhere to go. Until this moment I’m

26

90 Interview at Vluchthuis open day February 17, 2013

91 Interview at Vluchthuis open day February 17, 2013

92 ibid, 827

93 ibid, 829

afraid to step into a train. I don’t have the money for a ticket so if I get caught I’ll have to go

back (to the detention centre) again.”94 The psychological stress in combination with the fear of

being detained again has become so severe that some of the interviewees have claimed that some

asylum seekers have resorted to self mutilation. As one man recounted his story of first arriving

in The Netherlands:

“I was taken to a bureau where they took my fingerprints and made a file on me. For

my story I told them I was an orphan and grew up in an orphanage and then they

started doing their investigation on me. After two years the verdict was no. So I

reapplied for citizenship again. 2012 was the last time I was denied citizenship. Then

I got kicked out of the detention centre and had to leave. They asked me to return

again to Iraq and I refused to go.”95

In a follow up question he replied:

“If The Netherlands throws my file away then I could leave, but now I’ll be rejected in [all

of] Europe because my file is in the European system. If they would throw it away then

tomorrow I’d be in the UK applying again. It’s just really the finger print. There are

people, a friend of mine, that cut off his finger tips so he can reapply again in another

country. Can you blame him? I get nose bleeds now because I am so stressed from this

27

94 Interview at the Vluchthuis, March 7, 2014.

95 Interview at the Vluchthuis, March 7, 2014.

process. I had no sleep for a long time once. If they didn’t have my fingerprints I would go

to Finland, or to Norway, or somewhere.”96

The desire to escape from The Netherlands and seek asylum in another European country does

not come as a surprise. Under the current Dutch immigration policy, as revamped in 2012,

“Illegal residence has been made a criminal offense, so that aliens who entered the country

illegally and have not departed (or have failed to do so by the set time limit) are committing a

crime.”97 The labeling of failed asylum seekers as criminals further exacerbates the

psychological fear of arbitrary arrest and detention.

4.2 Effects of Government Policy: Social exclusion and isolation

In assessing the interviews with the undocumented in comparison with Dutch policy, it has

become apparent that many of the undocumented are currently in their position as a direct result

of policy changes surrounding their refugee status. It could therefore be argued that the decision

by the Dutch government to end an individual’s temporary refugee status or to revoke the status

of refugees further facilitates undocumentedness. Until a new law was passed in 2000, which

became effective on 1 April 2001, refugees were granted permanent protection.98 However after

2001 all successful asylum applicants received only up to 5 years maximum permission to stay.99

28

96 Interview at the Vluchthuis, March 7, 2014.

97 Wendy Zeldin, “Netherlands: Immigration,” The Law Library of Congress, (2013), 7 http://www.loc.gov/law/help/Netherlands.php

98 According to a telephone interview with Ahmed Pouri, PRIME (Participating Refugees in Multicultural Europe), 21 May 2014, The Hague.

99 According to a telephone interview with Ahmed Pouri, PRIME (Participating Refugees in Multicultural Europe), 21 May 2014, The Hague.

The current situation of the undocumented, as presented in this thesis, demonstrates that these

policies deprive people of the very basic rights that are self-evident for the rest of society. In

other words, the loss of citizenship rights has led to the loss of human rights. When asked the

question: ‘What does it mean to be illegal?’ one man responded: “I am not a criminal, I have

done nothing, so I do not know why they [the government] keep saying I am illegal.” 100 The

question that followed, ‘What are you allowed to do or not allowed to do as an illegal?’ brought

answers that suggested the creation of ‘illegals’ is a deliberate means to create social exclusion

and push irregular immigrants further away from Dutch society, with the idea that isolation will

lead to voluntary repatriation. As one man at the Vluchthuis stated:

“We are allowed to do nothing. In this country the police can get you for anything. Anywhere

that they might ask you for identification is dangerous. What we have to do is live in silence. The

Dutch government has its eyes closed on us. They are wearing dark glasses, they are not looking

at us. They want people to get sick of it (being illegal) and leave but that’s not possible.

All the days is like this.”101

“The right to stay, the right to appropriate (not only emergency) health care, the right to work and

cross borders, the right to freedom from detention and the right to political participation”102 are

all rights which undocumented Iraqis are not privy to in The Netherlands, and it does not appear

that the Dutch is progressing to make the situation any easier for them. The case is so extreme

29

100 Interview from Vluchthuis, event organized by Critical Collective on May 13, 2013.

101 Interview at the Vluchthuis, March 7, 2014.

102 Jelka Zorn, 256

that:“in The Hague, the undocumented are denied access even to homeless shelters.”103 In this

regard, “Single Iraqis experience deliberate homelessness as a policy.”104 The original ethos that

formed the foundational basis for the Geneva Convention on Refugees in 1951 have long been

abandoned in favor of “the hard-nosed utilitarian ethic of managing migration in the national

interest.”105 As the Dutch government clearly states in its White Paper on Irregular Migrants

(2004), procedures on dealing with irregular migrants are clearly prioritized as: 1) cutting off

access to employment and housing by intensifying controls, 2) intensifying the fight against

identity fraud through increasing controls by the police, 3) increasing the detention capacity for

irregular migrants, and 4) expelling more apprehended migrants through the expulsion policy

program.106 According to Bourdieu, “the power of the state to define what is legal or illegal is a

form of classification power”107 with States not only having the monopoly over the control of the

‘legitimate means of movement’, but also over the allocation of citizenship and residence rights,

clearly demonstrating the power of the State to affect the life chances of irregular immigrants.108

30

103 Helen Hintjens, “The Hague: Refugees Evicted from Protest Camp,” Institute of Race Relations (2013)

104 Helen Hintjens, “Nowhere to run: Iraqi asylum seekers in the UK,” Race and Class(2012), 94

105 Liz Fekete, “Asylum-seekers and migrants across Europe are determined to change the inhuman circumstances of their existence,” Institute of Race Relations (2012) http://www.irr.org.uk/news/from-despair-comes-resistance/

106 Godfried Engberson and Dennis Broeders, “Fortress Europe and the Dutch Donjon: Securitization, Internal Migration Policy and Irregular Migrants’ Counter Moves,” in Transnational Migration and Human Security (2011), 81-89

107 Bourdieu, Pierre (1994). ‘Rethinking the State. Genesis and Structure of the Bureaucratic Field’,Sociological Theory, 12:1, 1–18.

108 Godfried Engberson and Dennis Broeders, “The State versus the Alien: Immigration Control and Strategies of Irregular Immigrants,” Western European Politics (2009)

The experience of not having a homeland to return to, or a new country to belong to, is a painful

reality for the undocumented.109 The question ‘where is home’ is not a simple one when dealing

with undocumented lives. When asked this question many interviewees simply shrugged, unable

to answer, though some of the younger men appeared to have a stronger connection with Dutch

culture. As one such informant told me: “Holland is my home, it is my place, because I grew up

here. I make my eyes open here. I speak the language. It’s like my country. I really feel it is my

country.”110 Though some of the younger people interviewed (those in their early to mid-20s)

expressed more of a connection with Dutch culture, likely due to their arriving in the Netherlands

while still of high school age which enabled them to establish new friendships and make

connections, many of the older individuals (30+) expressed feelings of exclusion and isolation.

Some of the older men mentioned that they had family (wives, children) in Iraq, whereas family

was not so often mentioned by younger men. One thing that appeared certain was that all the

undocumented men whom were interviewed shared a similar goal, as stated clearly by one

interviewee: “I hope that I get papers to live like a normal person, like Dutch people. That is

what I need and that is what I want.”111

After losing one’s homeland, especially in extreme cases of violence and war, it would seem

natural for refugees to desire a quick resettlement and start a new life for themselves. However,

due to the strict anti-immigration laws set forth by Fortress Europe,112 this process is far from

31

109 Marjel Van Dijk, “Refugee Belonging in the Netherlands: The story of an Iraqi Refugee woman’s struggle to belong” (Masters diss., University of Amsterdam, 2011), 9

110 Interview at Vluchthuis open day February 17, 2013

111 Interview at Vluchthuis open day February 17, 2013

112 Godfried Engberson and Dennis Broeders, “Fortress Europe and the Dutch Donjon: Securitization, Internal Migration Policy and Irregular Migrants’ Counter Moves,” 81-89

easy for the majority of refugees. The feeling of not ‘belonging’ is partly a result of official

policies that exclude failed asylum seekers and former Iraqi refugees, as was discussed briefly in

Chapter 2.

4.3 Identity, Community and Resilience

The political instability in the state of Iraq has further facilitated regional divisions within the

country, especially concerning the northern region commonly referred to as Kurdistan.113 The

term ‘Iraq’ to describe the nation state is, in and of itself, problematic, with many individuals

born in the northern territories identifying as Kurdish rather than Iraqi. As my translator, Hoba

Gull, a Kurdish born Dutch citizen stated: “Most Europeans call me Iraqi, but I don’t identify as

Iraqi, we have always been Kurdish.”114 Many academic publications as well as political and

media discourse refers to Iraq as one State. For individuals born in Iraq, however, the matter is

not as simple.115 One interesting observation in the Vluchthuis is that new forms of identity have

emerged among this group which relate to the way that nationalism has been defined as an

‘imagined community.’116 Those in the Vluchthuis insist that they have no strife, and that

regardless of which part of Iraq they originate, or even regardless of their religious differences,

that at the end of the day they are all Iraqi. One of the men in charge of the logistics of the

Vluchthuis, such as organizing food distribution from volunteers, and creating the weekly

32

113 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, “UNHCR Eligibility Guidelines for Assessing the International Protection Needs of Asylum-Seekers from Iraq,”(2012)

114 Interview with Hoba Gull at Anna van Buerenplein, February 22, 2014

115 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, “UNHCR Eligibility Guidelines for Assessing the International Protection Needs of Asylum-Seekers from Iraq,”(2012)

116 Benedict Anderson, “Imagined Communities,” in The Origins of Nationalism,(1989).

cleaning schedule (as will be discussed below) was Kurdish, something which the Arabic

speaking Iraqis did not seem to mind. As one man put it: “Well he is the best at speaking Dutch

and organizing things, and he is the oldest!” It becomes apparent then that a stronger sense of

community has emerged among those who have been forced to live together. When asked

questions surrounding these perceived differences, one man stated:

“People think that Christian Iraqis are always in trouble in Iraq, that they are

always prosecuted and being killed. Well it’s not like that at all because all Iraqis

don’t have a chance in Iraq. The problem is the country itself, not someones

religion. The Christians and I are both Iraqi, from another side maybe, but we are

from the same country. It’s clear from my face that the problems are my country.

This man is a Sunni (points to man next to him) and I am Shia. He doesn’t differ

between Sunni and Shia because there is no difference.”117

In relation to building community, the developments in the Vluchthuis from March 2013 to May

2014 are quite impressive. Where only a year ago makeshift bedding was conglomerated in an

open space and people roamed around the church somewhat aimlessly, recent developments have

included the construction of individual and group housing units, lined up neatly in rows which

are divided by “streets” (one street which the men have humorously named Wall Street); the

building of a gym on the upper floor of the church composed of weights and exercising

equipment; an incredibly organized kitchen headed by one of the men who is in charge of

33

117 Interview at the Vluchthuis, 7 March 2014.

collecting and sorting all food distributions; and a cleaning schedule which rotates between the

various people living in the church to ensure that the church remains clean and organized.

Whilst during the initial settlement of the Vluchthuis, individual well wishers, lawyers,

anarchists, Christians and the Critical Collective all assisted and were present on an almost daily

basis, after several months the men began self sustaining and the numbers of volunteers

decreased. However, the men at the Vluchthuis still rely completely on volunteers for their food

supply. When leaving one interview in March 2014, a car pulled up with a woman and her

husband, whom were quickly greeted by several men from the church. When she opened the

trunk of her car, it was revealed that she had come to donate several large boxes of food. When

asked where she was from and how often she brings food she replied: “Oh, I’m just a woman

from The Hague. My husband and I bring food here once a week.”118 In terms of governmental

involvement, the Municipality has apparently not been very involved in the organization of the

Vluchthuis. When asked who comes to visit them one man told us: “One time a woman from the

municipality came by with some people and they took pictures without asking and then left.

They never talked to us.”119 But when one member of the local Green Party (Groenlinks) did

visit the Vluchthuis in 2013, she had a discussion with the group and took notes. Jan Pronk, a

former Dutch labour party politician, also visited the church several times and has been an

outspoken critic of The Hague’s lack of attention for these men.120 Mostly, the men staying at the

Vluchthuis have learned to organize themselves and to plan their own activities, and this now

34

118 Notes taken from meeting at the 7 March 2014, Vluchthuis, The Hague.

119 Notes taken from meeting at the 7 March 2014, Vluchthuis, The Hague.

120 Interview with Jan Pronk at Vluchthuis open day February 17, 2013

happens without the help of the experienced squatters from ‘Occupy’ and ‘Anti-Fascist Action’ ,

the ones who originally broke into the church and opened the doors for the refugees.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the situation in the refugee church contributes to other empirical evidence already

documented121 which concludes that: “attempts by the state to fight irregular migration are

pushing irregular immigrants further underground.”122 It could be concluded that the reason such

stringent measures are instated by the Dutch government on failed asylum applicants are on the

idea that rejected asylum seekers will eventually voluntarily return to their country of origin.

From this study it seems very unlikely, if not impossible, that this would happen without force

from Dutch authorities and cooperation from the Iraqi government. Though it appears the Dutch

government will do anything to continue to push their agenda of expulsion, many undocumented

men are standing their ground, even though illegal residence in The Netherlands has been

deemed a criminal offense. However, the public discourse surrounding immigration and asylum

seekers has now become distorted, putting pressure on individuals and official institutions not to

help.123 These policy pushes draw questions on the theory of social exclusion, which refers to

“processes in which individuals or entire communities of people are systematically blocked from

rights, opportunities and resources (e.g. housing, employment, healthcare, civic engagement,

democratic participation and due process) that are normally available to members of society and

35

121 Godfried Engberson and Dennis Broeders, “Fortress Europe and the Dutch Donjon: Securitization, Internal Migration Policy and Irregular Migrants’ Counter Moves,” 81-89

122 Ibid.

123 Lauren Comiteau, “Asylum-seekers: ‘not my problem’,” Radio Netherlands Worldwide, December 15, 2012, http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/amsterdam-asylum-seekers-“not-my-problem”

which are key to social integration.”124 Furthermore, if we assume that there is a set of core

activities which constitute participation in society, being the ability to participate and the desire

to participate, 125 then it can be concluded that the polcies surrounding failed asylum applicants

are indeed contributing to deliberate social exclusion.

36

124 Institute on social exclusion, Alder School of Professional Psychology, http://www.adler.edu/page/institutes/institute-on-social-exclusion/about

125 Tania Burchardt et. al., “Degrees of Exclusion: Developing a Dunamic, Multidimensional Measure, (2002) Oxford University Press.

Chapter 5: General Reflections and Conclusions

As Ètienne Balibar (2004) has argued: “European citizenship cannot realize its democratic

potential without the equal inclusion of refugees and immigrants.”126 The use of definitions such

as ‘legal’ or ‘illegal’ on human life creates a division between people and societies, between the

very conception of what it is to be a ‘human’ verses a ‘citizen,’ the former being acquired at

birth, and the latter through membership in a particular political group.127 This project has

analyzed the experiences of Iraqi refugees currently residing without documentation in The

Netherlands. It explored the lived experiences of failed asylum seekers and the obstacles and

dilemmas they face due to their not having regular status. Relying on a review of the available

literature and policy documents surrounding Dutch immigration laws, and the contrast of these

laws and their noncompliance with the recommendations of the UNHCR and Amnesty

International, this study further brought in the voices of the undocumented, including their

personal stories, opinions and experiences with the laws that govern them. Most articles on

government policies surrounding refugees rarely consider the viewpoints of undocumented

people themselves. For this reason, primary research was seen as vital to establish the situation

‘on the ground’ for undocumented refugees. In this way, this thesis has aimed to contribute new

empirical evidence so that the problems of undocumented people in The Netherlands, and other

EU countries, might be better understood.

37

126 Jelka Zorn, 12

127 ibid.

The conclusion of this study finds that stricter Dutch asylum policies are indeed pushing

irregular migrants further underground, and contributing to a more widespread feeling of

discontent, isolation, and fear amongst the undocumented themselves. However, the research

undertaken with this particular group equally demonstrates the determination and creative drive

of undocumented survival, and the methods employed to organize their own living spaces, to

advocate for their basic rights, and to create their own communities. To the extent that the group

organizes itself, at least in The Hague, it was found that perhaps surprisingly Dutch well-wishers

tended to withdraw from involvement. This is quite concerning as their food supply could at any

time be threatened, as almost all food is supplied solely by volunteers. In terms of social

exclusion, the isolated location of the Vluchthuis is of some concern as it is feared (by myself

and likely others) that focus and attention on this vulnerable group of men could diminish (the

previous Koekamp was much more central). However, despite the initial lack of local media

attention to their situation, there are some hopeful signs that the tide of opinion may yet turn in

their favor, with some reporters bringing their story as far as Washington128 and the UK129, as

well as some recent in depth investigative reporting from Dutch media. 130 A broad conclusion is

that the efforts to self-organize among this group of vulnerable people are paying off. Thus the

study concludes that despite all the obstacles in obtaining legal status, undocumented people

generally should be recognized as having some capacity to improve their own lives and indeed

have proven to do so. In relation to the Dutch government, who proudly stand by their firm

38

128 Matthew Dalton, “Europe Deports More Iraqis: U.N. Refugee Agency Criticizes Some Nations for Tightening Policies; ‘I’m going to get killed’,” The Wall Street Journal, March 9 2010

129 BBC, “Iraqi refugees arrested in Hague tent camp eviction,” December 13, 2012.

130 Jos de Jager, “This the Day Report: 36 hours as life as an illegal,” February 25, 2014, video report, http://www.uitzendinggemist.nl/afleveringen/1400016

approach on asylum with the ultimate goal of repatriation, this study found very little evidence of

a desire for voluntary return among undocumented Iraqis, demonstrating that strict asylum

policies only lead to trauma and social exclusion, a life which no man should be forced to live.

39

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