Journalist Sardar Hassankhali (40) wrote his last article in Iran in 2015. He advocated a separation of church and state. The article earned him the death penalty. Sardar fled and built a new life in Budel as a status holder. He feels that the resistance against refugees is increasing, but thinks that the village is good for him. “People are very nice here.”
For fourteen years, the Kurd was a journalist in western Iran, near the border with Turkey. Oppression and discrimination against Kurds marked his stories. “People have received a good education there, but they cannot get a job. We are only allowed to speak our own language at home and we are not allowed to study our own language.”
One hot day in 2015, his mother called. Armed men had taken his computer. Sardar decided to lose no more time. He crossed the border into Turkey without anything with him. His father sold the car and paid 8,000 euros to people smugglers. Sardar ended up in Rotterdam after a journey across the Mediterranean Sea and through Europe. “The truck driver said, ‘This is the end of the road, bye bye’.”
“There was a lot of fighting. There were police every night.”
Sardar lived for two years in azc’s in Budel and Overloon. He didn’t like the experience. In 2015 he was in Budel for four months. “The food was bad, but I think it’s better now. It was very busy. I could not sleep. You think: what will happen? Can my wife and son come?”
In the azcs he had to deal with tensions and nuisance. “You are together with a lot of people from different cultures. Most people don’t sleep at night. There was a lot of fighting. There was police every night.”
He noticed that a lot is being stolen from shops. “At the AZC in Overloon I saw boys who traveled to big cities to steal there. My neighbor had expensive designer clothes and shoes in his room. They sold them on.” The azc in Overloon is now closed.
But thefts are not the only problem, he says. “It is also about differences in culture. Here people want to rest after six o’clock in the evening. When people from the azc make noise on the street in the evening, because it is quite normal for them to be out late, people suffer from it.”
“I always remain half Iranian.”
After he received a residence permit, Sardar participated in a project of the municipality of Cranendonck. He became a steward at the train station in Maarheeze. “I tracked down stolen bicycles there. They were there every day. It was a lot.” Sardar indicates that he was also a victim himself. “My wife’s new bicycle was stolen, but I don’t know if an azc resident was behind it.”
Secretly, Sardar once told his wife that he also wants the azc to close. “But you can’t close all azc’s, that’s just not possible. Other solutions must be found.” He thinks that people from safe countries stay here too long. “Why can they stay here for six months to a year?”
Sardar has found a job at a printing house in Budel. His wife is a home hairdresser and dreams of having her own business. Sardar now has Dutch nationality. He has new friends and nice neighbors in the village. “I like to have a beer with them. But I always remain half Iranian. Our area is so beautiful, with mountains, waterfalls and rivers. I really miss that.”
Do you want to share your story with us? Which can. Editors from Omroep Brabant will be in Budel and Maarheeze from Monday 24 July to Friday 28 July. You are welcome to share your story with us. But you can also email us at [email protected] or call or app to 040-2949492.