Amsterdam-born boy, 11, will be deported to Armenia, Council of State rules

Mikael, an 11-year-old boy who was born in Amsterdam and has never lived anywhere else, cannot stay in the Netherlands, the administrative law division of the Council of State ruled on Wednesday. He will be deported to Armenia with his mother, Parool reports.

Mikael’s mother, Gohar Matosyan (54), settled in the Netherlands in 2010. Mikael was born here a few years later. Both are undocumented. They’ve been fighting against their deportation to Armenia for five years.

In 2021, the Amsterdam court ruled that Mikael and his mother could stay in the Netherlands. The then State Secretary of Asylum appealed, arguing that Mikael and his mom had been out of sight of the authorities for too long. The Council of State now ruled in the government’s favor.

“The division understands that it will be difficult for the alien to leave for a country where he has never been before. The division also understands that the alien is stressed and uncertain and that this is difficult for him,” the Council of State’s administrative law division said. “That does not mean that the division can agree with the alien. The desire to stay in the Netherlands, the stress, and the uncertainty do not set aside the application of the law.”

The Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND) told Parool that it was studying the ruling. The plan is for Mikael and his mother to move to the IND’s family deportation location tomorrow so they can prepare for their deportation to Armenia.

Mikael has never been to Armenia. “The IND could just as well send me to Ghana,” he told Parool last month. “I know that country just as little as I know Armenia.”