The political tensions surrounding the asylum policy led to the fall of the cabinet last Tuesday. Although he is not concerned with politics, Lazkin got something: “I don’t know much about it, but what I know is that they wanted to send us back, and that did not work.”
Yet he feels careful optimism. “Maybe something is finally changing,” he says. “We have been stuck for so long. Everything is standing still. Maybe now there is finally movement.”
Not sit still
Despite the long waiting time, Lazkin is not standing still. He does volunteer work at a Food Bank in Amsterdam and takes language lessons via the ACZ. “‘How are you?’ I think it is funny.
Lazkin has been working as a welder in Syria since he was seventeen. He hopes that he can pick up that profession again in the Netherlands. “I like to work with iron. I hope I can do that here too.”
Yet the situation remains uncertain. Without a residence permit, he cannot really build his life. But hope remains. “I would like to learn more about Dutch culture and adapt as well as possible. I want to understand how life works here,” says Lazkin.