Mohamed Rugamana no longer has to take the train to Dronten every week to report to an AZC. He can now report to an asylum seekers’ center in Amsterdam every Thursday. Haarlem’s most famous street news vendor has this obligation to report because of his asylum procedure.
Mo is ‘very happy’ that he no longer has to take the train to Dronten every Thursday. “That was always very difficult. I applied for a transfer together with my lawyer and I can now report to the A&O hostel, an emergency shelter in Amsterdam.”
The transfer saves him four hours of travel. “I can now take the bus here and it’s 35 minutes on the road. That saves a lot of time and is very nice. I even go there on Wednesdays to sleep.”
“I still get reactions to that video, even from Amsterdam”
Made at the beginning of this year NH News a report about the obligatory weekly journey from Haarlem to Dronten. The video caused quite a stir and even led to questions in Haarlem politics.
“I really got a lot of reactions after that video, and I still get reactions,” Mo continues, standing with his newspapers at the trusted post for a Haarlem retail chain. “Even from Amsterdam, people have seen the video. Really special.”
See the video below, text continues
Mohamed Rugamana – NH News
Mo is from Burundi and has been living illegally in the Netherlands for seventeen years. His revised asylum application will run from 2019 and since that time he was obliged to report to Dronten every week because he was registered there. Because he has been staying in Haarlem for so long and has his network here, he wants to stay here.
The street news vendor still hopes that his asylum application will be approved and that he can finally find peace after 17 years of uncertainty. “I would like to get my driver’s license,” says Mo in the video. “Then I can become a bus driver. That is my wish.”
The COA, the central Shelter for Asylum Seekers says that it cannot comment on specific cases and therefore cannot explain why ‘Mo’ can now report to Amsterdam. They say they are happy for him.