As you know, conditions for rejected asylum seekers in the UK are very harsh. Some see this as a deliberate policy measure in order to put pressure on people to return - despite the fact that for many of them, return is not an option. I don't need to spell out that these policies have a very detrimental influence on both mental and physical health.

Policies in the Netherlands are similar, but the NGO Defence for Children International (DCI) recently challenged them in the European Committee of Social Rights - the body which interprets the European Social Charter. DCI won their case and the Committee ruled unanimously that the Dutch government is obliged under the Charter to ensure that no child is homeless, whatever their legal status.

Problem solved, you might think. But Holland goes to the polls on June 9th and the established parties, including the Christian Democrats to which the Minister of Justice belongs, are scared of losing votes to anti-immigrant, anti-Europe parties. Whatever the reasons, the Minister announced that he has no intention of obeying the Committee's ruling. Now there is a petition under way to demand that he changes his mind.

Unfortunately the Committee's ruling cannot be applied to children in the UK, because the UK Government has never ratified the revision of the Charter that contains the crucial article (31.2). However, it would help put pressure on the Dutch government to have many signatures from abroad on the petition, so that they realise the damage which they are doing to their country's reputation. It might also help to resist the inordinate influence that extreme right-wing anti-immigrant parties are having on the coming elections.

DCI's petition is at http://www.geenkindopstraat.nl/pages/gkos/English and you are warmly invited to sign it. More information about the case is on their site, and you can also read the item on the site of the Child Rights Information Network (CRIN) here: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=22000 .