Dozens of Somali asylum seekers staged a three-day protest in front of a refugee centre in Ter Apel, a village in a remote part of the northeast of the Netherlands.
They had exhausted all the avenues to remain legally in the Netherlands and some of them have been moving from one place to another across the country for years. They've depended on friends and volunteers for shelter, but those options have run out.
Citing safety considerations in the run-up to New Year's Eve celebrations, Leontien Kompier, the mayor of Ter Apel, had given the Somalis an ultimatum to end their protest by 2 p.m. on Thursday.
On Thursday evening, the asylum seekers accepted an offer by the Dutch Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) to reconsider their asylum request. If the IND rejects it again, the Somalis will have to return to their country of origin. The asylum seekers tore down their tents on Thursday evening and moved into the refugee centre.
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I do feel sorry for these people. It is not the right time to seek any asylum in any western country because their economy is in turmoil. Having said that Holland was the most welcoming place for refugees in the whole western society. Second somali generation are well educated I am my self PHD holder in Telecom engineering currently a consultant for British Telecom. Somali refugees who lived in Holland are now in the UK, and the reason is the dutch education system is not transparent. Somalia is not a place for animals to live in let alone people
That was my 2 cents.
Regards,
I do understand that Somalis are newcomers into western soceity like NL, but that does not stop them from getting the needed basic rights like getting shelter and education. Somalis as newcomer to NL deserve that the government supports them until they merge with the local soceity, and culture. The government of NL need to support Somalis to learn the language and culture.
Somalis are running from home infested with civil wars just like many Europeans did in the second world war, where large number of NL citizens were in other countries.
Chinese proverb says "Help who is in crisis but not who lives on charity". I think Somalis are active and will earn their living in NL, if they initial support gets on right time.
Thanks
What a Load of nonsense "90% of somalis are illiterate", we somalis deserv every bit of what other nations do to us due to the inability to resolve our problems, but history is not a path levt by the past but something that shapes the future and I hope to see a better year for my people than the last 20 yeras of missary and misfortune they had
That Somalis have actually been allowed into the West is beyond belief. These are people who have just about stepped out of the stone age but have not yet passed the agricultural stage i.e., to a settled society. They are still primarily a nomadic people. As a confirmation of this, Somalis have only just acquired a written form of their language - not of their own volition. Nomadic people do not need a written language as
1) Only a settled society has the free time to develop a culture and then pass it on in written form.
2) Books are excess baggage for nomads.
Even now 90% of Somalis are illiterate in their own language.
So here we are, our wise and extremely educated politicians have forcibly pushed millions of pre-agricultural prone-to-violence nomadic people, into a post industrial 21st century society. It is worth pondering that it would be easier for Greeks, Indians, Chinese from 2500 years ago to assimillate in modern day Europe, then Somalis.
I fear for the outcome for us as well Somalis. We have done them no favours.
Anonymous- I am 100% Somali, who is very book literate, but also with the advantage of the "street smart" that comes with being a naturally born nomad. Only an idiot would make broad, generalizations based on misconceived stereotypes. Only an idiot... Enough said!
They should go back to Somalia when they do not like NL.
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