Netherlands: Death of Mrs Jojo Muluta: asylum seeker
01 July 1992
On 23rd of April Mrs Jojo Muluta at that time pregnant died in the hospital of Meppel. According to the official statement of the Minister of WVC who is responsible for the refugee centres in Holland, she died of serious anaemia. How could it happen that she died after 14 days in Holland when medical treatment could have saved her? This is one example of what is happening with the harmonisation of EC policies through the Schengen and Trevi groups.
Looking at the sad story of Jojo Muluta is in way looking at the story of thousands of asylum seekers. Entering Holland is becoming more and more difficult and asylum seekers who arrive at Schiphol (Amsterdam airport) especially get very hard treatment. What exactly happened to Jojo Muluta when she arrived in Holland with her husband and three children?
The family, originally from Zaire, took refuge ten years ago in Libya, together with about 200 other Zairese, all members of the FLNC, a party which was (and is) forbidden in Zare and whose members were heavily persecuted. Last year the Zarese community in Libya fell in disgrace and most of them decided to leave Libya and seek asylum in Denmark and Germany. When the Mulutas, together with another family, the Abubes, left Tripoli on 9 April, they were heading for Denmark, where they had addresses of old friends. The plane did not go directly to Denmark; they had to change planes at Schiphol airport.
There they first came in contact with the new European policy on asylum seekers. On entering a European country you have to stay there and ask for asylum in that particular country, and are prohibited from continuing your trip. This happened to both Zarese families; their luggage went on in the normal way to Denmark, but they were held by the Dutch police. On the first day of their arrival Dutch immigration officials tried to persuade them to return to Libya.
Held in Holland
Since it was impossible to leave for Denmark they decided to stay in Holland and seek asylum, and then the waiting started. The normal procedure in Holland, said the Minister of Justice, is that asylum seekers can be held for maximum 24 hours in the airport transit space at Schiphol airport. There's no accommodation, no good food, no real medical care and no access to refugee help organisations. After the first day Jojo Muluta, who was 7 months pregnant, began to feel sick with stomach ache, headache and diarrhoea. When Jean Muluta asked the police for medical help, they said they only were there to watch them, and that they needed special permission to get out of the transit space, which they would not get. For four days they had to stay and every request for medical care was not followed up. When after her death the Public Health Inspection investigated what happened at Schiphol airport the police insisted on the fact that they were never told Jojo Muluta was pregnant and they had not noticed it themselves.
On the 13 April Jean Muluta was interrogated by the aliens police. His wife Jojo was still ill and before the interrogation started he asked the interpreter for medical help. "After the interrogation" was the answer, but after 7 hours of questioning, mainly on the situation in Libya, Muluta didn't get the medical help for his wife he requested.
Then they were not sent back to Schiphol airport, but were brought to the so called "Grenshospitium". This is a newly opened prison for asylum seekers, who in the eyes of the Dutch government can't stay in Holland. In this prison asylum seekers stay four to eight weeks, the time it takes to hear their lawyers appeal. Afterwards most of them are sent back to the country they came from. This prison is part of the new policy of the Dutch government to put off as many asylum seekers as possible. It is one of the restrictive measures that isolate the asylum seekers from entering the Dutch society and puts them in the position of more or less a criminal.
For eight days the Muluta Family were