I understood that Wilders, Yesilgöz, Omtzigt and Van der Plas are spending the night at the De Zwaluwenberg estate in Hilversum these days. Formateur Plasterk had his toothbrush with him, he said, and toothpaste. Would they each have their own room, with a real bed in it? Toilet, shower, or a shared sink in the hallway? Outside there is a tent on the grass, but it is not intended for sleeping, but for smoking a peace cigarette after the quartet of laws and monopolies with houses and reception hotels for migrants. Sheltered from the winter cold, protected from prying eyes.
Hopefully the former had the opportunity to watch it together on Wednesday evening around ten o’clock the first part of The world in Ter Apel. Just to see again what we are talking about when we talk about flows, tsunamis and “the Netherlands as one big asylum seeker center”. Hans Hermans and Martin Maat were exceptionally given permission to film for a year behind the fences of Ter Apel, a village in East Groningen. This is the front door of the Netherlands, the place where everyone who wants to apply for asylum must report. For years, too many people have wanted to enter through that one front door, in 2023 there were 43,000.
Then you get situations such as on November 21, 2023, the evening before the House of Representatives elections, when the party leaders in TV debates once again made a lot of positives, but mainly negatives about how many people are still allowed to enter the Netherlands. That same evening, blankets and sheets were distributed in Ter Apel, chairs were moved and improvised beds were made on the concrete floor of the waiting areas. That is no longer allowed, said the top of the IND immigration service, letting people sleep on the floor. And the State Secretary didn’t think it was good either. Since then, tour buses carrying men, women and children have been driving to and from surrounding emergency shelters every day.
Tears of anger and powerlessness
Perhaps the party leaders also looked at one of Wednesday’s news. Then they undoubtedly saw the mayor of Westerwolde, with tears of anger and powerlessness during the summary proceedings that his municipality, which includes Ter Apel, had initiated against the COA, the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers. The agreement has been for years that there is room for two thousand people in Ter Apel. But that number is exceeded year after year, last Monday there were still 2,158 people staying in the reception center. He is not responsible, mayor Jaap Velema told the Groningen judges, but he feels themselves responsible. The Justice and Security Inspectorate says it, the GGD says it, and in the documentary The world in Ter Apel see for yourself: there is a lower limit to what can still be called humane shelter.
It is not the fault of the employees of the COA, the IND or the immigration police. They do not give the impression that they are engaged in assembly line work, even though they conduct sixty interrogations in a day. The same questions over and over again. Where are you from, how did you get here and why are you here? A nineteen-year-old man fled Syria when he was eleven. Because war and bombings. His village has been destroyed. Are there any other reasons, besides the war, why the gentleman could not return to Syria? “Everything is broken, is that a reason?” Part of his family stayed in reception camps in Turkey. They were safe there, until the 2023 earthquake destroyed everything there too.
The documentary makers take the viewer to the borders that the refugees crossed. The deadliest border in the world, the Mediterranean Sea where people drown. The primeval forests on the border of Poland and Belarus, where people disappear. The area between Somalia and Ethiopia. The world outside Ter Apel is also a valley of tears.