Support march tonight for Amsterdam boy facing deportation to Armenia

Sympathizers for the situation of the Amsterdam boy Mikael and his Armenian mother will be walking a support march for the two who recently heard that they are not allowed to stay in the Netherlands on Wednesday night. The march starts at 7 p.m. at the primary school Achtsprong in Amsterdam-Zuidoost, where the 11-year-old Mikael was a student up to this summer. The route ends just over a kilometer at the district office on Anton de Komplein.

The initiator of the march was Jenny van Galen, who lives in the neighborhood and has said that she feels significantly affected by the Mikael situation. "It is very damaging to deport children who have established a base here to a country they have never been to," she says. Van Dalen could not say how many people will attend the support march. Mikael and his mother will be present, said a spokesperson for Defend the Children, who co-organized the event.

She claimed that local and national politicians will be present. "But they will not speak; this is purely a civilian initiative." Van Dalen is expected to give a speech, as is Dave Ensberg-Kleijkers, director of the Zonova school association, which includes Achtsprong. Attorney Royce de Vries and Mitchell Esajas, co-founder of The Black Archives, will also give a speech.

Mikael's mother came to the Netherlands from Armenia in 2010, but her request for a residence permit was denied. Despite this, she stayed in the Netherlands, where Mikael was born two years later. After all, he submitted an application to grant him and his mother a residence permit based on the so-called Closing Regulation. This is intended for children who are not strictly allowed to stay in the Netherlands but who are still eligible for a residence permit under certain conditions because they have lived in the Netherlands for a very long time.

After a lengthy legal procedure, the Council of State ruled last week that Mikael and his mother are not entitled to such a permit. It is not yet clear when Mikael and his mother will have to leave the Netherlands, and it is also not known where the two are currently staying. Family spokesman Guy Loyson said they had already left the asylum seekers' center before the Council of State's ruling and were housed at another location.

According to the spokesperson for Defence for Children, the man who has been on hunger strike for several weeks in front of the office of the Immigration and Naturalisation Service in The Hague is also present at the march. The man is campaigning against the deportation of children. The director of Defence for Children will also be at the march. Mayor Femke Halsema, who previously called for a leniency arrangement for Mikael and his mother, will not attend the march. According to a spokesperson, she is abroad. "She is in contact with the family."