“When I play baseball, I feel free and I forget what’s going on on the other side of the world.” 22-year-old baseball talent Cesar Augusto Salazar Cedeño fled from his home country Venezuela and has applied for asylum here. In anticipation of that, he accidentally ended up at a baseball club in Alkmaar, where they are very happy with the former professional.
It is Sunday-afternoon and the first baseball-team of Alcmaria Victrix plays against Kinheim from Haarlem. Two bases are loaded and Cesar comes to bat. The Venezuelan played at a high level in his teens in the Dominican Republic and the United States.
“That swing of his: if he hits the ball well, you can start looking,” coach Lisandro Tromp told NH Nieuws. The crowd starts to cheer.
Cesar has been in North Holland for about three years. He fled because he was no longer sure of his life in his dictatorial homeland. More than six million Venezuelans have left home and hearth, because food and medicines are no longer affordable.
In addition, Cesar is affiliated with the opposition party in the country and his life is in danger, he says. He is nineteen when he decides to leave his family behind and take the bus with his baseball glove in his pocket to the Colombian capital Bogotá.
From there he flies to the Netherlands. Cesar ends up, via the application center in Ter Apel, at the asylum seekers center in Den Helder.
Below is the border between Venezuela and Colombia. That’s where the photo above was taken. Text continues below the image.
“I like it here. I feel safe. I can walk on the street here without having to fear for my life,” he says from the dug out at the Alkmaar club.
In his first at bat, Cesar does what everyone is hoping for. View the report here. Text continues below.
Cesar scores points in Alkmaar – NH Nieuws
According to figures from the Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND), in the first half of this year, 78 Venezuelans applied for asylum. That is already the same as in all of 2021 and 2020. A spokesperson says that this may be due to the lifted travel restrictions due to corona.
Criteria for granting asylum are country specific and are set by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Applies to Venezuela that you fall into a ‘risk group’ – and therefore have a greater chance of asylum – if you are involved with the opposition, are a political activist, dissident or journalist or criticize the authorities in the field of human rights.
Turned down
Cesar’s first application for asylum was rejected because, according to the IND, he has not made it plausible that he fundamental and deep-rooted political conviction has. Nor has it been sufficiently demonstrated that – as stated – he has used any fame as a baseball player in the opposition and that he is therefore in danger.
He says he was threatened with a firearm and almost kidnapped, but according to the IND it is not possible to test whether this is the case and who is behind it. Cesar has appealed the decision and is now awaiting this.
In almost all Noord-Holland municipalities the population has grown since the beginning of this year, according to figures from the Central Bureau of Statistics. In most municipalities this is a small growth, but in Amsterdam, Zandvoort and Texel, for example, growth significantly. NH Nieuws looked for success stories from people who came to the Netherlands.
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