Daniel Boffey - Dutch round-the-clock church service keeps hopes alive for asylum family

By Dilip -
Tamrazyan family, facing return to Armenia, hide out in church protected by medieval law
The pastors and volunteers at Bethel church, a small Protestant chapel tucked away on a quiet street in a residential district of The Hague, are preparing for what looks likely to be an unusually busy and anxious Christmas. They worry that they will need to turn away some of the faithful at the door, and there are even putative plans to live-stream the services on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, such is the expected level of interest.

The main concern, though, is to keep a flicker of hope alive among the Tamrazyan family – Sasun, his wife Anousche and their children Hayarpi, 21, Warduhi, 19, and Seyran, 15 – who have been holed up in the church for nearly two months, protected by a medieval law that says immigration authorities cannot enter while a religious service is ongoing.

The Tamrazyan family have been fighting to stay in the Netherlands since arriving from Armenia in 2009. They turned to the church in late October when their asylum application reached the end of the line and deportation appeared imminent. The claim that their lives would be at risk in Armenia due to Sasun Tamrazyan’s political activism has fallen on deaf ears, as has an application for a kinder-pardon, a dispensation available to families with children who have lived in the Netherlands for more than five years.

With nowhere to go, the Tamrazyans put their fate in the hands of the Bethel church community in The Hague’s Segbroek district. It was quick to respond. By Christmas Eve, a service in the chapel will have run continuously for 60 days and nights, or for more than 1,400 hours. It is thought to be the longest “asylum service” in Dutch history. Through day and night, pastors hold services for six or seven hours at a time, always with a congregation of at least three people so they can justifiably describe their efforts as a religious service.

A list of phone numbers of neighbours ready to join the congregation at a moment’s notice has been compiled should there be a danger of the chapel emptying, but it has never been needed... read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/21/dutch-round-the-clock-church-service-keeps-hopes-alive-for-asylum-family

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