Immigration service again decides to deport Amsterdam-born boy, 12, to Armenia
The Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND) has again decided to deport 12-year-old Mikael Matsoyan from Amsterdam to Armenia with his mother, the boy’s lawyers confirmed to Trouw. Mikael was born in Amsterdam, but his parents come from Armenia.
The lawyers and Mikael’s family are considering possible next steps and will give a more substantive response once a decision is made.
Mikael’s situation made national headlines last year. The boy was about to be deported to Armenia, a country he had never been to in his life. He was born in an asylum shelter in Amsterdam, has lived his entire life in the Dutch capital, and was just about to start secondary school.
Mikael’s friends, classmates, and neighbors marched in protest against the boy’s deportation. A 79-year-old activist went on a hunger strike. Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema and the leaders of seven opposition parties pleaded with Asylum Minister Marjolein Faber to make an exception for Mikael. “Mikael is in the prime of his life and should not be the victim of residency regulations that may be legally correct, but where the human dimension is sometimes lost sight of,” Halsema wrote in a letter to the Minister. But Faber refused to give in.
The child’s lawyers then found another way to maybe keep Mikael in his home. The boy’s parents separated in 2018, and his father has since received a Dutch residency permit because he has children with a Dutch woman. Mikael has a relationship with his father, who is involved in raising the boy. That would make him entitled to stay in the Netherlands near his father based on European treaties.
But the IND has now rejected that application too. According to the immigration service, despite his father’s involvement, Mikael’s mother is responsible for most of his care. As long as Mikael and his mother are together, his well-being is sufficiently guaranteed, including in Armenia, according to the IND.
