Helena and Sarina Rasuli (14) have not been able to go to school for eight months due to waiting lists and student stops for International Transition Classes. They feel depressed and watch movies all day to get through the days in the asylum seekers’ centre.
It’s 11 a.m. Monday morning. A normal school day for Dutch children, but not for Helena and Sarina Rasuli (14). Helena sits with her back against the wall on Sarina’s bed. She watches YouTube videos on her phone. Sarina is lying under the white and black dotted blankets doing the same. They’ve pretty much watched all of YouTube, but they don’t have any other daytime activities.
Helena and Sarina from Iran have been living for months within the walls of a small triple room in an asylum seekers’ centre. Eight months ago they fled from Iran to the Netherlands, but since that time they have not seen a classroom inside. There is no place for them in the International Bridging Classes (ISK), where newcomers aged 12 to 18 are taught.
Student stop
A year after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, there is hardly any Dutch secondary school left for young people who have fled or migrated to the Netherlands. Almost every ISK is full and new young people are placed on a waiting list, reports the organization Lowan, which supports schools with education for newcomers.
A growing number of schools have introduced a pupil freeze in recent months. This means that new children will no longer be added to the waiting list until the summer holidays. Schools in Assen, Groningen, Lemmer and Emmeloord, among others, have stopped placing new students in their ISK classes. It is unclear how many children cannot go to school. According to Lowan, this data is not kept anywhere.
‘My life was hell’
Helena and Sarina fled Iran together with their mother Maryam Gharemanipiraghaj (42). The relationship between Maryam and her husband was bad. “He hit me. I didn’t feel safe.” She wanted to divorce him and protect her children from his aggression, but her parents and brothers would not allow this. “I am from Ardabil. Most of the people there, including my family, are strict Muslims. My life was hell. As a woman you were not allowed anything. I was sure they would kill me if I divorced.”
Maryam saw no option but to flee from her native country. She left for the Netherlands because she used to work for Wageningen University. There she got to know the Netherlands as a country where women have the same rights as men. “I wanted that for my girls too. They should not be restricted because they are women.”
In the Netherlands, Maryam thought, they could get all the opportunities they needed. The reality turned out to be different. Helena and Sarina had no opportunities to go to school because of the long waiting lists at ISK’S. Moreover, due to the crisis in the asylum reception, they had to move all the time. From Ter Apel to Maastricht, Budel, Ter Apel, Wageningen, Ter Apel, Assen and then Gilze. Each time they ended up on new waiting lists.
Depressed
In Assen, where they were last month, Maryam sent a desperate email to Karin Zwiers, director of the ISK in Assen, at the beginning of February: “ Please do something to start the education as soon as possible because they are getting depressed without connecting with community.” Zwiers posted the message on her LinkedIn to draw attention to newcomers who cannot go to school.
But the desired change is not yet forthcoming. The family has been living in Gilze for seventeen days, where Helena and Sarina are again on the waiting list. The sisters sit in their room all day doing nothing. When Sarina talks about her day, she occasionally falls silent. “It is difficult here. I have no friends and I have nothing to do.” Her shoulders slump and her eyes fill with tears. Helena agrees. “We are fourteen years old and have no friends, which makes me very sad.”
On a ‘normal day’ the sisters only get out of bed around eleven o’clock. They have breakfast with their mother and then go back to bed. They sit there watching movies for up to six hours. Their only daily activity stops after six o’clock, because Wi-Fi is available in the azc from eight to six o’clock. Then they eat with their mother and stare into space. They don’t dare to go outside for a walk or exercise. There are many single men in the azc and the girls feel watched. “Sometimes they call out to us, so that scares me,” says Sarina.
And then there are bad days. “Then I have to pull them out of bed because they don’t want to wake up,” says Maryam. “They say: what’s the point mom? I don’t have to go to school anyway.” Maryam is worried about her children. “I don’t know what to do. The Netherlands is a country where school is compulsory, and yet they cannot go to school. It makes me powerless.”
Children get lost
Stories such as those of Helena and Sarina are known to aid organizations such as Unicef and Refugee Work. “It is a very worrying situation. Not only that children do not go to school, but also that they have to move all the time. We hear stories from children who have moved ten times, which has a huge impact on their lives,” says Evita Bloemheuvel of the Council for Refugees.
UNICEF spoke with nineteen directors and coordinators of schools that educate refugee children. They indicated that they were very concerned about the mental well-being of children in the shelter. “We now have the impression that some children, if they are not in school or on a waiting list, are completely out of the picture at schools. This makes children extra vulnerable,” says Senior Specialist Children’s Rights Arja Oomkens.
Unicef believes that the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) should take into account the stability and availability of education in the municipality when placing families and unaccompanied children (amvs). In addition, the aid organization calls on the Ministry of Education, Culture and Welfare (OCW) to urgently implement a registration system in which it can be seen whether a child is following education, so that children who cannot immediately be placed at school are also visible to schools and the Lowan. The organization also asks for possibilities for an alternative education program, so that all children can go to school.
At the beginning of February, MPs Suzanne Kröger (Groenlinks), Kati Piri (PvdA) and Lisa Westerveld (Groenleft) asked parliamentary questions about the continuing lack of education for children in asylum reception facilities. For example, they think that State Secretary van der Burg (Justice and Security) should come up with solutions in the short term. Van der Burg does not have one here yet answer gave up.
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International transition class
Young people between the ages of 12 and 18 who have just arrived in the Netherlands – for example, children of refugees or labor migrants – must enter three months education are arranged. They are almost always placed first in an International Transition Class. They are there with other newcomers to learn (among other things) the Dutch language. This prepares them for further education in regular education. In total, approximately 120 secondary schools currently offer ISK education.
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