“I pretended to go on holiday to Belerus, there I crossed the border and ended up in the Netherlands from Poland and Germany. Then I turned myself in to the police. They were very nice and gave me a ticket to Ter Apel.” , tells Suleiman about the road he traveled.
When he arrived in Emmen by train, he saw how complicated it was to take the bus to Ter Apel. “There was no one to accompany me to the bus. I took the wrong bus and ended up in Groningen. That is why we started this initiative.” Together with a number of friends, he accompanies arrived asylum seekers to the right bus, which is in the direction of Ter Apel. “We help people who don’t know how to get a ticket, older people with their luggage and can translate if miscommunication occurs somewhere.”
According to him, a lot of nuisance is caused by this miscommunication, where people do not understand each other well. “If the troublemaker hears someone who speaks the same language, he calms down a bit. In Emmen they now say that the problems have gone since we arrived,” Suleiman praises the work. In recent times there has been a lot of talk about the nuisance in public transport between Emmen and Ter Apel, often caused by so-called safe landers.
Incidentally, Suleiman does not yet know whether he can stay in the Netherlands. He is positive about the country and the people, but is still waiting for a final decision. “I want to live here, marry and die. Never leave again,” he says firmly.
Watch the story of Khaled el Suleiman and the help he offers to asylum seekers here: