Mahmud Jouma, 17 years old from Syria, also lives and works in Hotel Spier. It’s better there than in the application center, he realizes. But, says Mahmud, life is boring for his parents now. “My dad doesn’t do anything at all,” he says. “All he can do is sit in the room. Sometimes he’s really depressed. There’s only a highway, he’s looking at that. Nothing else.”
Mahmud also sometimes feels lonely. “I’ve lost everything. My life, my home, my country. And it’s not our fault. We haven’t done anything. You don’t know what your future will look like. Whether you have to go back to your own country or stay in the Netherlands . You don’t know anything at all. That’s pretty hard.”
Still, he keeps up the courage. “You have to smile at life. Sometimes things don’t go the way we want, but you have to hold on.”
(Text continues below the photo)