Feature: Undocumented refugees in the Netherlands remain in limbo

Ethiopian Abebe Kahsay Beyere tried to suppress his frustration as he explained how he moved from squats, to tents, friends' places and shelters since two years ago his asylum request in the Netherlands was rejected.

The 32-year-old biologist lives in a small windowless but cozy room with a bed and a couple of chairs in a former elderly home in Amsterdam arranged by the Protestant Church.

Beyere said he could not return to his home country because he fears he would be detained for belonging to an opposition party, while the Dutch immigration service told him there were no grounds for him to stay.

Beyere is one of a few hundred undocumented asylum seekers that have been at the center of a heated political debate between the two Dutch ruling coalition partners over whether they should provide "bed, bath and breakfast".

Undocumented asylum seekers will receive shelter in five cities for a limited number of weeks on the condition that they cooperate on their eviction. Durations can be elongated for those who are sick or cannot return within the time limit.

The deal took nine days to negotiate and averted a potential break-up. The right-wing VVD feared shelter for undocumented refugees would attract more refugees, but left-wing PvdA was in favor of providing shelter.

Beyere said the agreement changed little to the treatment of undocumented refugees.

"They are repeating the same thing and call it change. How can a government say you cannot eat and you cannot sleep," he asked.

MUCH CRITICISM

There has been national and international criticism on the agreement.

Councillor Tara Scally of the city of Utrecht said that conditionalizing the provision of shelter was inhumane and called the limited time frame unacceptable. "We are very shocked by the outcome of this agreement."

She said the agreement wrongly assumed that all undocumented refugees could return to their home countries. "There is a large group that cannot. This agreement is not a solution for those," Scally told Xinhua.

Utrecht has been providing unconditional shelter, daycare and guidance for undocumented refugees and would continue to do so, despite the agreement, she said. "We want to offer a prospect, whether it is a residence permit or voluntary return."

Opposition party PVV (Party of Freedom) opposed the agreement for other reasons. In a statement on the party's website PVV president Geert Wilders said that the policy rewards unwanted behavior.

"Illegal immigrants who don't obey their obligation to leave the country now get shelter at the expense of the tax payer. That's the world upside down," he said.

Geesje Werkman, refugee specialist of the Protestant Church PKN, was also disappointed by the agreement. She said that it ignored a decision by the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR) of October 2014.

The ECSR decided that the Netherlands violated human rights of undocumented asylum seekers by not providing them support. "What we see is that those violations will keep going on. That's very sad," she said.

Lawyer Pim Fisher of the Conference of European Churches, the group that filed a complaint against the Dutch state at the ECSR on the request of PKN, said the agreement hardly changed the ground realities for undocumented refugees.

"They just added five centers," he said.

"The Netherlands signed the treaty and should honor its treaty obligations in good faith. It's not that complicated," Fischer said.

UN-rapporteur Philip Alston told the Dutch national broadcaster NOS that the agreement rejected the country's human rights obligations. "If the Netherlands wants to become an island within Europe that steps on human rights, then simply just say so."

MORE REFUGEES

The number of asylum seekers -- many of them Syrians -- in the Netherlands more than doubled last year, according to the Dutch immigration service.

In 2014 there were 21,810 asylum requests compared to 9,814 the year before. Last year 65 percent of the requests was accepted. The remaining asylum seekers were asked to return, but activists said this is often not possible.

Many of the undocumented refugees cannot return, because their home countries don't accept them, says Petra Schultz of the refugee support group ASKV in Amsterdam.

"We for instance provide guidance to a girl with a Congolese mother and a Rwandese father and both countries say she's not really 'our' citizen," Schultz said.

She added that refugees who entered the Netherlands when they were minor not always have the nationality of the country they came from and then also have trouble getting the documents they need to return.

Beyere said that he was grateful for the support from the church and Dutch locals around him, but wished to return to Ethiopia as soon as he feels it is safe to do so. "Nobody prefers this life." Endit