We are religiously (not) neutral
Gave has been concerned about the freedom of religion of asylum seekers for many years. In order to get a better picture of this, a survey was held in the autumn of 2021.
We hear from colleagues and volunteers throughout the country regularly how they experience visiting asylum seekers in a reception centre or organising activities for them. These stories not only show how passionate people are about doing something for this vulnerable group, but also, they reveal how COA (the Dutch Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers) deals with Christians who visit the reception centre and with the needs of converts and Christians living in the reception centre. The picture we get is very diverse: at one location, a lot is possible when it comes to, for example, giving a Bible study, putting up posters for the church service or organising activities, but at another location COA is much stricter.
When it comes to religion, COA takes the position: we are religiously neutral. However, COA has to deal with residents who are all but religiously neutral. The way in which COA interprets its own religious neutrality and the consequences of this for, for example, the residents’ experience of religion at the location differs from one location to another. Gave speaks with COA on the issue how to deal with religion in the reception centre. To do this we want to be informed about the experiences of Christians who visit the reception centres. Therefore, we conducted a survey among Christians throughout the Netherlands who visit reception centres. By means of this survey, we hope to get a better picture of how COA deals with religion in the reception centres, how Christians experience COA and what they encounter.
In this survey, we obtained information from 73 respondents at 30 different COA locations. We collected a lot of information, which provides a basis for our discussions with COA on religion and freedom of religion in reception centre. On the basis of the survey, we cannot yet draw general conclusions about freedom of religion at the reception centre in the Netherlands, but we do see a certain trend. Especially when it comes to group Bible studies in the private rooms and the announcement of Christian activities in the reception centre, respondents indicated that COA regularly or often does not allow this. The survey also showed that the way in which COA deals with these matters varies from one location to another and can even differ significantly. In some cases people are happy with COA and experience a certain openness at COA for activities which Christians organise or want to organise. However, in most cases this openness is hardly or not present. In the end, there is still a lot of room for improvements in the cooperation with COA.
There is a clear need for more information on what can and cannot be done. This need exists on the part of the volunteers, but COA employees also appear to have insufficient information on the subject. As a result, there is a lot of arbitrariness. Also, we often see an infringement of the privacy of residents who, for example, are denied the right to experience their faith together in their own room. COA’s national guidelines on providing residents with information on, for example, church activities in the neighbourhood are also too often ignored.
More research
On 19 November 2021, the government’s Scientific Research and Documentation Centre (WODC) published a report on the safety of LGBT people, converts and apostates in the reception centres. This research also shows that there are large differences in the way COA deals with the issues between reception locations. The attention COA pays to the religious needs of residents is still in its infancy, in spite of more than 10 years of discussion between Gave and COA on these issues. In a response, the Secretary of State has acknowledged this and has promised that 2022 will see the commencement of a plan of approach which Gave will be involved. Learn more about the WODC research.