Hilversum: Don’t deport Zimbabwean man; “This boy is rooted in Hilversum”

By Janene Pieters on December 15, 2015 - 13:00
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Update, 3:09 p.m., 15 December 2015: A previous version of this story identified the Zimbabwean man, Kuda, as being 18 years of age. He is actually 21.

The municipality of Hilversum is making a last effort to stop the deportation of a Zimbabwean man named Kuda. Politicians are calling on Security & Justice Secretary Klaas Dijkhoff to change his mind about the 21 year old.

Kuda is scheduled to be put on a plane to his home country this afternoon.

"This boy is rooted in Hilversum. As municipality we are proud to have a boy like Kuda. We can not understand this and feel very helpless", the mayor and aldermen write in a statement on the municipality's website. They are interrupting their weekly meeting to call on Dijkhoff to stop this "inconceivable" deportation.

Kuda Matungamire fled Zimbabwe in 2008 and moved in by his aunt and uncle in Hilversum, according to broadcaster NOS. His aunt is also from Zimbabwe. His relatives took him in as foster child. As no asylum application was filed for Kuda, he does not fall under the children's exemption, and is thus being deported.

The letter to Dijkhoff is signed by Mayor Pieter Broertjes and five aldermen, including Wimar Jaeger and Eric van der Want of the D66, Floris Voorink of the VVD, Arjo Klamer of the SP and Nicolein Vroonhoven of the CDA.

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