The Netherlands are ready to provide asylum to the Russians affected by homophobia

Foreign Minister of the Netherlands France Timmermans said that his country is ready to consider requests for asylum to Russians who suffered from homophobia. It is reported by Reuters with reference to a letter to the Minister to the parliament.

Timmermans explained that the law on the promotion of "non-traditional sexual relations" is actually aimed at discriminating with representatives of the LGBT community. The danger of this law, the minister added, also in the fact that he creates an atmosphere of homophobia in society.

The Netherlands will further attract the attention of the world community to violations of human rights in Russia, the minister assured.

Relations between Russia and the Netherlands worsened in September, when the Russian special services captured the Arctic Sunrise belonging to the Greenpeace icebreaker in the Pechora Sea. The team and passengers of the vessel - only 30 people out of a dozen countries - were arrested on charges of piracy. Later they were also accused of hooliganism.

The Netherlands filed a lawsuit in international arbitration, and to take interim measures applied to the International Tribunal on Sea Law. Representatives of the country insist that Russia release Arctic Sunrise and its crew, and also terminated all law enforcement actions in this case. Consideration of the request of the Netherlands will begin on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Russia refused to participate in the proceedings.

On October 6, the police detained the Russian diplomat Dmitry Borodin in the Hague. According to law enforcement officers, he was drunk and posed a threat to others. Later, the police apologized for violating the Vienna Convention.

On October 15, unknown people in Moscow beat and connected the Dutch diplomat ono Elderenbos. The Russian police stated that it was a simple robbery. Meanwhile, nothing disappeared from Elderenbos’s apartment, while the attackers, leaving, drew a heart and left the inscription "LGBT".

On the night of October 18, an apartment of one of the Russian diplomats was robbed in the Hague. Later it turned out that the crime was committed by the recidivist well -known police - he was identified by fingerprints. On October 23, the criminal was detained.

On October 31, Timmermans said that the Netherlands are conducting informal negotiations with Russia in the Arctic Sunrise case and hope that the arrested will be released without a trial. “The decision on activists does not have to go through the court,” the politician noted. Timmermans, however, did not say any details, explaining that he was afraid to disrupt negotiations.

After the adoption of the homophobic law, many representatives of the LGBT community began to apply for asylum to Western countries. So, in mid -August, the growth of such appeals from Russian gays was recorded in the United States .

On January 17, in the deportation prison of Rotterdam , another Russian Dolmatov committed suicide , hiding in the Netherlands from persecution in the "swamp business". Shortly before this, the activist was denied political fiction: officials considered that there was no serious danger to him for him. Later, the Netherlands admitted that when considering the Dolmatov case, a number of gross errors were made.

Nevertheless, the Netherlands later refused the shelter to Alexei Sweetheart , the brother of the deceased Primorsky partisan Alexander Sweet.