IndyMedia - Vrij Media Centrum Nederland

Wanneer: 29/11/2013 - 13:51

Hieronder de brief (28-11-2013) van Wij Zijn Hier waarin ze uitleggen waarom ze het aanbod afwijzen van de gemeente Amsterdam voor opvang voor 6 maanden in de voormalige gevangenis aan de Havenstraat in Amsterdam.

In de bijlage de reactie van Van der Laan.

Dear mr Van der Laan,

This letter is our formal reaction to the offer you made last friday for a
shelter for six months in the Havenstraat for 159 people. Monday, we have
received your invitation to inspect the location, a former prison. We went
there with all the leaders and some group members.

We have given our first reaction there, and we formulated demands in a
meeting with volunteers on monday night. On tuesday, we were invited to
come to City Hall to discuss the details of the contract. We attended this
meeting and we have understood the details of the contract, in which you
met most of our demands.

What you offer is a shelter for six months in a former prison, with
toilets and showers, security, a place to prepare our food, wash our
clothes, common rooms and possibilities spend our time working on a
solution, either in an asylum procedure or in training and education. The
security as we understand it, is comparable to the regime of a regular
asielzoekerscentrum: free entrance and exit for inhabitants, access for
registered visitors between 8 and 22 hours.

We want to sincerely thank you for this offer. It is a great step forward
that you want to provide us with a possibility to work on a solution and
think about our future in peace. However, we are very sad to inform you
that the location you chose does the contrary, because it is a prison.

This leads to emotional reactions and bad memories for many refugees: most
of us have been in prison several times, in our country of origin, but
also in immigrant detention in the Netherlands. These bad memories lead to
depression and distrust to such an extent, that we fear for our health. We
cannot think of our future in a location that reminds us of our past.

Another problem is that the group is limited to the list of 159 refugees
from the Vluchtkerk. This means that in effect, only 100 people will be
provided with shelter. This means that around 60 people, some of which are
very vulnerable, will be out on the street on December 6, without any
support from the City, left to the care of social organisations and
volunteers.

We are very sad to say that we therefore have to reject our offer as a
group. We hope you will be offer shelter in another building. If this is
not possible, we hope you are prepared to extend your offer for shelter
until after December 6 for individual refugees from our group.

http://wijzijnhier.org/
https://www.facebook.com/WijZijnHier