I responded thus: "The plight a family whose application has been denied....and they have been asked to wait for nine months before they are invited for another round of interviews... the family has asked to be returned to Afghanistan..."
Please allow me to continue.
Evidence based hopes in the success of asylum process and immigrant asylum application are often not the fruit of hard work and as such providence ensures that these false hopes in the reality of a game of near-facts, can often be swept away in a storm as easily as the leaves of autumn.
Let those who have abundance remember that they are surrounded by thorns, is an apt echo adaptation of the faint voice of Calvin: "You are bad and God will find you out"...is a distant mirroring of the machinations in the asylum industry. The business of migration often has little or nothing to do with nationalism or its defense; but rather everything or more thereof to do with the economics and taxation of suffering, of a people's plight, of deliberative rights-based deciet, and above all therein exploitation by politics and politicians' interests which defy logic and remains indifferent to the real, assumed and or concocted realities of the immigrant asylum seeker.
In the end, a new sense of reason is born and often it works like a magical wand. A provocative proclamation of LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) community edict, however plain and vein, carelessly veiled and loosely syntaxed all but point to an unguarded collision. But it is collusion of interests that are winners.
It is not the horrors of the bombs, nor the treacherous journeys across the seas, nor the brutal hands of an uncompromising regime in some corner of governments across the world– it all boils down to a perverse implicit asylum doctrine, a powerful one at that. Because the marital vows that has kept disagreeing ruling coalitions to muse at their masterpiece is and should be scary to the conscious immigrant asylum seeker.
Plainly spoken, if I may, the asylum process; are not always about you (asylum seeker). In the first place, decisions of Dutch or European nationalism are a preserve of Dutch and European nationalists.
To my good friend in an Enschede AZC, who soon proclaimed, albeit to undetecting asylum colleagues, that a sadness welled in him upon not seeing the Dutch "orange" at the Euro-2016 football tournament. The reply came quick enough: "If I were to record what you have just said and send it to Ter Apel, you would be more Dutch in a heartbeat," the official said; with a tone and air that hid any tinge of sincere indifference that often accompanied interactions between people of different classes.
Journalism, or at least, the type of journalism I have practiced over the years is premised on "not accepting anything as truth until it is officially denied". This in turn nurtures a strong sense of pessimism. Yet I am not alone in this dark sensation.
Successive governments in the Netherlands have worked with the Queen to ensure that her speech at the annual opening of parliament—with both houses in attendance, remains a living opportunity to tighten the near-fear concerns for the future on her majesty's subjects.
Like all theatre, the Queen sets the stage for the politicians to reign in authority –urging the public to rest assured that everything was and is completely under control -including which people are getting asylum and why – and that all the problems being faced today and in the future have been predicted in advance.
This is afterall, how, in fact, all governments work. Interestingly, Dutch society have continued to be the custodians of a vanguard manning the asylum gates, through which a report card from the IND will undergo some sort of litmus.
Even pessimism must be controlled at some point. It is foolhardy on my part to over-generalize. This said, the growing sense of indifference to the immigrant asylum seeker can easily be a misguiding compass to the millions of well-meaning Dutch people of this peaceful low sky lands that have reached out to embrace all manner of immigrant asylum seekers; without first acknowledging what transpired on the pathway to a meaningful Dutch identity.
Every case is particular and has its unique characteristics. There are perhapsonly generic scenarios that each asylum application is matched against. Yet, a short chat with every immigrant asylum seeker will delve into a sobbering exchange of "stories that work".
Even Dutch friends have openly made implicit suggestions of "taking one for the team if neccessary". In fact, questions of "what is your story?" are often in referrence to a different pile of narratives, most of which are neither based in reason nor in fact.
There is an awareness that facts are irrelevant in the asylum of many immigrant asylum applications. It becomes a question of what can be proven, against what "story" is supplied. Amidst all these "stories"; an Afghan family is seeking to be returned to the country from which they escaped for fear of their lives. This is after their "stories"were punched too many holes through. All they were left with were the real reasons and horrors for which they left what was their livelihoods and homes. The father and son were in agreement for the first time in many years. Their journey took them through much of the Middle East.
"Enough is enough" were the murmurs, after they were told that their interview would resume after a period not less/more than six months. The son kept describing the humiliation he has had to go through, in his family's attempt to secure a new place they can finally call home.
Sadly, it all came down to the stories that they were educated would secure a "positive decision from the IND".
Sadly, these stories didnt work for them as they have worked for countless many others. They argued on and on, but if they knew anything about the COA officials over the many months; they knew, these wails were nothing. The officials have grown immune. Almost robotic in response, the officials whisper loudly to one another, and in a tongue the family could not comprehend. For they had only memorized numbers, days of the week and an empty of emotion dank je wel.