Contact:

Jeremy Sutton on behalf of the van der Spek family.

801-209-1545

Jeremy@thesuttons.org

www.Thevanderspekplight.com

Nov 21, 2009

PRESS RELEASE:

Today we had a press conference in the LDS meeting house at 4195 s. 6000 w. West Valley City UT.  The family presented a detailed explanation of their case and the circumstances that led to their current situation.  See the following URL for this information:

http://www.thevanderspekplight.com/blogs/story/archive/2009/11/16/how-it-came-to-the-point-that-we-are-on-the-other-side-of-the-world_2E00_.aspx

We requested that the public become actively involved in requesting assistance from the public representatives.  Specifically Senator Orrin Hatch, his staff has been actively pursuing assistance for the family.  We estimate the public in attendance to be around 200 people.  They were all encouraged to visit our website at www.thevanderspekplight.com and follow instructions posted on the website. 

About the Family:

Dirk van der Spek, 49 yrs old, Male (dad)

Christiane De Maerschalck-van der Spek, 48 yrs old, Female (mom)

Kyra Sutton, 24 yrs old (female)

Vicky Thorsted, 23 yrs old (female)

Dirk van der Spek, 22 yrs old (male)

Kenny van der Spek, 20 yrs old (male)

Geoffrey van der Spek, 19 yrs old (male)

Nathan van der Spek, 18 yrs old (male)

Shari van der Spek, 17 yrs old (female)

Chelsea van der Spek, 15 yrs old (female)

Quinten van der Spek, 13 yrs old (male)

Kevin van der Spek, 12 yrs old (male)

Scott van der Spek, 10 years old (male)

Brennan van der Spek, 8 years old (male)

This family had its house raided and family pulled apart by local police in Boom, Belgium 11 years ago.  After being stalked and harassed for so many years this was really the final straw.  They used the fact that the LDS church was on a cult list against this family.  The only way that the parents could get their children back is either changing religions or moving to a different country.  Since the family already had tickets to come to the USA for a vacation, this was the best solution at this time. 

Since coming to this country they have applied for asylum and all other possible options available to them.  Everything has been denied.  This family is a very hard working family and everything possible through the legal avenues has been exhausted.  At this point they are now under deportation proceedings and preparing to leave the country.  After being here for 11 years they desperately want to try what they can to be able to keep the family all together and stay here.  The family will be pulled apart again since 2 of the children are US children and 2 of the children are now permanent residents, on top of that there are 2 US grandchildren.  Deferred enforced departure is something that this family thought they would be eligible for by now but that form of relief is only available to immigrants that have acquired 10 years illegal presence.