Dutch church service stops after 96 days as asylum family pardoned

[EmperorScorpious]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/31/church-service-stops-96-days-asylum-family-pardoned-netherlands-hague-church

A church service that has been performed continuously for 96 days has come to an end after the Dutch government agreed to pardon a family the pastors were shielding from deportation as part of a wider amnesty.

Hayarpi Tamrazyan, an econometrics student at Tilburg University, said on leaving the church with her parents and siblings that it was “unreal, it is a relief” to “finally go outside again, walk around”.

As part of the agreement, the kinderpardon will be taken off the statute books but the head of the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) now has the discretionary authority in such cases rather than a politician.

[EcksDee]

"Sasun Tamrazyan, his wife Anousche and their children Hayarpi, 21, Warduhi, 19, and Seyran, 15, have been holed up in the Bethel church in The Hague since October, relying on a medieval law that says immigration authorities cannot enter while a religious service is being performed."

Holy fuck, good on the staff at the church for their humanity here, well done.

[Iknowtoomuch]

It's like some sort of liturgical filibuster.