{"id":14387,"date":"2018-09-09T00:24:40","date_gmt":"2018-09-09T00:24:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=14387"},"modified":"2018-09-09T00:24:40","modified_gmt":"2018-09-09T00:24:40","slug":"armenian-children-facing-deportation-can-stay-in-the-netherlands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=14387","title":{"rendered":"Armenian children facing deportation can stay in the Netherlands"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The\u00a0Netherlands<\/a> has suspended a planned deportation<\/a> of two Armenian children whose bid for asylum was rejected, in a case that has drawn nationwide attention.<\/p>\n

The surprising U-turn came\u00a0after the siblings – 12-year-old Lili and her brother Howick, 13 – went into hiding ahead of their expected deportations on Saturday.<\/p>\n

In a statement, the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security\u00a0<\/span>said that while authorities in the Netherlands and Armenia had worked hard to arrange a secure situation for the pair in Armenia, “recent developments” meant “the welfare and security of the children can no longer be sufficiently guaranteed”.<\/p>\n

“The state secretary has therefore, taking everything into account, decided that the children can remain in the Netherlands,” Saturday’s statement added.<\/span><\/p>\n

Going into hiding<\/span><\/h2>\n

Earlier on Saturday, Maarten Molenbeek, spokesperson for the justice ministry, said the children had ran away from a foster home overnight, while police appealed for the public’s help in locating them.<\/p>\n

Police reported in the afternoon that the siblings had been found and were being questioned, but would be returned to foster care.<\/p>\n

The children have been living with foster parents since their mother, Armina Hambartsjumian, lost a decade-long legal battle for asylum and was sent to Armenia<\/a> without them.<\/p>\n

It was not immediately clear whether\u00a0Hambartsjumian<\/span>, who was deported to Armenia last year, would be allowed to return to join her children.<\/p>\n

The siblings, who came to the Netherlands in 2008, have reportedly never visited Armenia and do not speak Armenian.<\/p>\n

A court in the Dutch capital, Amsterdam, on Friday rejected a final bid to block their deportations.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Dutch government faced mounting disapproval of its original refusal to let the siblings remain in the country.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Mark Harbers, s<\/span>tate secretary for justice and security defended the government’s position on Friday, but acknowledged it was a tough decision to deport them.<\/p>\n

“Everybody feels emotional about this; that also applies to somebody in the cabinet like me,” Harbers said.<\/p>\n

“But at the same time you have to keep looking at all the facts that play a role.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\n SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0Netherlands has suspended a planned deportation of two Armenian children whose bid for asylum was rejected, in a case that has drawn nationwide attention. The surprising U-turn came\u00a0after the siblings – 12-year-old Lili and her brother Howick, 13 – went into hiding ahead of their expected deportations on Saturday. In a statement, the Dutch Ministry…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":14388,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}