I could use your help. Mehran is a new PhD student who recently joined our group. He arrived last week from Iran. He had a working permit but at the day he arrived, the Dutch immigration service (IND) decided to temporarily stop all processing of visa of Iranian knowledge workers (!). And so they put his visa on hold. This means that until they continue, he is not allowed to work here (and can thus not receive an income). The ridiculous thing is that the IND gives/has no information about how long this will be the case. Can you imagine what that must feel like for him? I’m ashamed to witness this act of so-called “Dutch tolerance”. To make sure that they do not forget that there are people waiting for their decision, an online petition was drafted. You can help us by signing it and spreading the word.

Update 2012-7-18

Good news! After one month of insecurity, Dutch immigration responded and allowed my new colleague to start his PhD. Thanks for all the support and interest. Read the reaction of the Dutch minister of foreign policy here.

Categories: Uncategorized

---

Comments are closed