This seems to also be the mindset of Jos Heijmans, mayor of Weert Limburg in the Netherlands, who is being accused of thinking himself to be ‘above the law’ when he helped a Syrian refugee woman and her four children to go into hiding to avoid being deported back to Germany.
Heijmans believes that his actions are justified since he was trying to keep the young Syrian family unit together.
The complications apparently began when the woman, whose husband is being held in an Assad prison in Syria, was separated from her 18 year old brother who ended up in the Netherlands.
The woman, who ended up in Germany with her four children, applied for asylum there but chose to then join her brother in the Netherlands where he had also applied for asylum.
She says that her brother had taken on the role of father figure to her children after they were forced to leave Syria without her husband and that it would be devastating for all of them to further break up the family unit.
After two attempts to keep the family together in the Netherlands legally and a letter to a junior justice minister asking for special consideration failed, Heijmans made the decision to help the Syrian mother and her children go into hiding to avoid the deportation which was supposed to have happened on May 3.
In the meantime, Heijmans has begun new legal proceedings to keep the family in the Netherlands in spite of the fact he has come under condemnation from the Dutch Society of Mayors for helping the Syrian refugee family.
Heijmans continues to defend his actions and says he has visited the family several times and that they are doing well.
Political parties in the Dutch town have differing views of what their mayor has done.
One party believes his actions are not in the best interests of anyone, including the refugees. They want to call Heijmans on the carpet and have him explain his actions.
However, representatives of the largest political party in town say that from a human point of view they understand why he did what he did.
At a time when the Syrian crisis has revealed just how little humanity seems to be left in the world, Jos Heijmans has proven to be a man with a clear understanding of what it means to have a heart.
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