For Lili and Howick

Open letter to Lili and Howick: Dhe government should protect children, not deport them. So let's keep fighting for that Child Amnesty.

For the past few months, I read media reports almost every day about your difficult and incomprehensible situation. Lili and Howick, aged 11 and 12, with a failed mother, left without her in uncertainty.

Like many Dutch people, I was concerned about your living conditions and could well imagine how you faced daily stress and tension, or how painful your mother's expulsion must have been. That you slept badly or suffered from nightmares. Because you also had to go back to Armenia. It must have been hard to think that you will probably say goodbye to friends and classmates forever, say goodbye to the place and country where you grew up to go “back” to an unfamiliar environment.

I often saw you on TV, two beautiful, innocent children with tears in their eyes, and I saw how you tried to stay calm to still answer all the difficult questions and make the authorities think. The judge and the authorities had to be convinced that you belong in the Netherlands, already at home, and that it is the government's job to protect children rather than deport them. Despite the judge's decision to deport you anyway, I kept hoping that good citizens would support your resistance to inhumane laws and objections.

“They are already home”

The first action was from your primary school. It was great to see dozens of children and teachers with big pictures of you on the street shouting, “They are already home. Lili belongs here and Howick belongs here.” What they did was special and great. And that encouraged many citizens and organisations to help you. A Persian expression says that a sea is made up of drops of water that slowly all come together.

You witnessed the growing support from all corners of society. Not just a lawyer and personal stakeholders, but also organisations like Defence for Children, political parties, thousands of citizens, many artists, writers and journalists who stood up for you. There were discussions on TV talk shows almost every day. The lives of two young children were put on edge by politics, what was in store for them? It was our collective responsibility to do something. Thousands signed a Defence for Children petition and shared it on social media.

Social debate

The enormous support from society and the resistance of your mother and yourselves finally made State Secretary Mark Harbers decide against deportation. Hooray, you can stay in the Netherlands! It was a victory for you and for progressive thinking Netherlands. For all the organisations and individuals who showed how important their efforts were, forcing the state secretary to decide against the government and the judge.

Lili and Howick, I know that a child who has faced such big problems from childhood has actually become a small adult. You are now a year older, but have seen and learnt a lot within a few months. You now know what real life means. You had to persevere, even run away and go into hiding to stop the deportation. Your story has become part of a social debate about refugees and, in particular, children who have exhausted all legal remedies.

Thankfully, it is now over. No more threats, no more actions, no police at the door and no eviction. You can now rest, sleep and go to school laughing with other children. I hope your mother will now be allowed to come to the Netherlands as soon as possible and be reunited with you.

Lili and Howick, you are allowed to stay in the Netherlands. But we all know that at least four hundred other children have also exhausted all legal remedies. They too live in a very insecure and unsafe situation and have to think about deportation every moment. Lili and Howick, you will not forget them. And it is our collective responsibility to support, protect and defend them. Like you, these children are sincere and deserve to stay here and go to school with friends.

We don't know who they are, what their story is or where they live. We only know that they are minors, perhaps without parents, all alone. We must continue to defend their rights. Let us all continue to fight for a generous policy and a just basis for the Child Amnesty.

More information on the Children's Amnesty: Defence for Children / Petition The Good Cause

Illustration © Flyer Defence for Children