Iranian Christians receive asylum in the Netherlands after being detained
Western Europe
A Christian family from Iran that spent five weeks in detention and was threatened with deportation to their home country has received asylum now anyways.
The couple, Sarang and Elham, and their daughter Anisa (9) got told that by their lawyer on Saturday, as announced by pastor Marco Buitenhuis. The latter stayed closely in touch with the family that was part of his church in the Dutch town of Noordbergum.
The family was put in detention on September 7, so that they could be forcibly deported back to Iran, the Dutch Christian daily Reformatorisch Dagblad reports. The Dutch immigration service did not believe that the Iranians were indeed Christians, pastor Buitenhuis said at the time.
The couple and their daughter stayed in detention for four weeks while their lawyer started a new procedure to request asylum. After five weeks, the family was transferred to a regular refugee accommodation to wait for the new verdict. Now, the Dutch immigration service decided that the family could stay.
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