Asylum seekers who have been refused permits to stay in The Netherlands protested for the second day in a row in the Dutch capital on April 17, 2015. NurPhoto / NurPhoto via Getty Images
Asylum seekers who have been refused permits to stay in The Netherlands protested for the second day in a row in the Dutch capital on April 17, 2015. NurPhoto / NurPhoto via Getty Images

Shadow lives: failed asylum seekers live on the margins of Dutch society



Amsterdam is a city famed for its canals, historic houses and art galleries. But there is another, darker side to the city. A world of abandoned factories and disused prisons that are home to failed asylum seekers who eke out an existence on the edge of Dutch society.

Most come from war-torn countries in the Middle East and Africa. Maartje Terpstra, a lawyer who has represented dozens of failed asylum seekers in Amsterdam, says: “If they get negative response, they get 28 days to leave the country on their own and if they can’t leave or won’t, all support stops from the government”. She adds: “If you can’t leave it’s your fault – this is the basis of their [Dutch government] entire policy.”

Many cannot return to their home countries because of conflict, persecution or poverty. Nor can they move to another European Union state because of the Dublin Convention, which says that the state through which the asylum seeker first entered the EU is held responsible. The Dutch have a policy to evict failed asylum seekers from refugee centres if they do not cooperate in their own deportations. However, the issue for most failed asylum seekers is that their countries of origin simply refuse to cooperate with the Dutch authorities or those countries are too dangerous for people to return to. For some, like Teferi, 45, a failed asylum seeker from Ethiopia, his country refuses to even acknowledge him as a citizen.

According to the Dutch immigration service, of the 31,600 asylum seekers who came to the Netherlands last year, 54 per cent were approved. Of those denied asylum – 53 per cent were deported immediately and 47 per cent were allowed to leave on their own within 28 days. It is this 47 per cent that represents those who have fallen between the cracks. There are no exact figures for the number of failed asylum seekers who have remained but it is in the thousands, according to lawyers I have spoken to.

Teferi (who did not wish to give his full name) arrived in the Netherlands in 2001 and has spent the past 16 years living in no-man’s land. “It’s very hard living your life without income, no insurance, no bank account and no ID card,” he says. When he arrived, he had aspirations to start a new life and find work. He had made an arduous journey, fleeing political persecution in Ethiopia, and crossed, by foot, into Kenya before arriving in the Netherlands. But Teferi’s dreams were dashed when his asylum application was refused and he resorted to working illegally.

“I used to work in the black economy before 2008, I worked washing dishes in hotels and restaurants.” But after 2008 things became difficult, “it became harder to find black-market jobs because employers could face fines and you could be taken to prison”.

Teferi now lives on the outskirts of Amsterdam in a cluster of old factories along with other failed asylum seekers. They are mostly from the Horn of Africa. The centre is run by the “We are Here” (WAH) collective. WAH was founded by a group of failed asylum seekers who were left homeless and destitute in 2012. Yoonis Osman, an asylum seeker from Somalia, is one of the leaders of the movement. He spent 12 years in limbo but in March finally got his refugee status. Osman says WAH came together initially because of necessity but has grown into a movement. “We came together to make our plight visible. We occupied public buildings in Amsterdam, putting pressure on politicians locally and nationally,” he says. “When a refugee is in limbo, his or her life means they’re living illegally, they can be detained anytime.”

Teferi explains his situation: “Now after 16 years I have lost all hope, I’m not fit to learn, I’m 45 now, it’s hard to learn. When I arrived, I wanted everything, I wanted to be taxpayer.” He adds, “the only thing you can think about is your status and your documents”. However, he has a lawyer who does pro bono work on his behalf and still has hope about securing asylum.

Rahima, 42, arrived in 2009 trying to escape the violence of Mogadishu and a forced marriage. But the Dutch authorities do not believe she is from Mogadishu and have denied her refugee status. During the asylum process, language tests are carried out to determine what particular city or region someone may be from.

But according to Terpstra, giving someone a language test is not a fair way to test someone’s right to asylum. Plus, she says that for asylum seekers from places such as Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia “it’s difficult to prove that you from that area or this area”.

In 2012, the Dutch became the first in Europe to announce they would be returning failed asylum seekers to south-central Somalia. Authorities claimed the security situation had improved. In November 2013, Ahmed Said, 26, who arrived in the Netherlands as a child was forcibly put on a plane and returned to Mogadishu. Just two days after his return, he was among 25 people injured in an attack on a hotel in the capital by Al Shabab, a group affiliated with Al Qaeda. Subsequently, the highest court in the Netherlands ruled that the Dutch government could not send back what it deemed “westernised” asylum seekers to countries such as Somalia. For now at least, Rahima is safe; she lives with her fellow WAH collective members.

There is a thread that ties these current policies to recent Dutch history. During the 1990s, the Dutch political system came under strain. The issues of integrating second-generation Moroccans and Turks, whose parents had come as guest workers in the 1960s and 70s, began to play out in Dutch politics. Even left wing Dutch intellectual opinion began to turn against immigration and multiculturalism. Many said that it was a mistake to have allowed largely Muslim migrants to settle in the Netherlands, and the September 11 terrorists attacks in the United States added yet more intensity to this fraught topic. Paul Scheffer's book Immigrant Nations, based on an essay published in 1999 called The Multicultural Tragedy, was a watershed moment in Dutch politics.

This came to a head in the early 2000s in the figure of Pim Fortuyn, who rose to national prominence on an anti-Islam and anti-migrant ticket. Fortuyn’s meteoric rise was cut short by an assassination in 2002 in Hilversum, a town near Amsterdam. In some ways, Fortuyn laid the groundwork for the current darling of the Dutch extreme right Geert Wilders and perhaps even the rise of US president Donald Trump.

Another figure to emerge in Dutch politics post 9/11 was Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born Dutch former politician and anti-Islam critic. She made a controversial film, Submission, about the treatment of women in Islam, with filmmaker Theo Van Gogh. He was shot dead in an Amsterdam park in 2004 by a young Dutch-Moroccan while cycling to work. The murder of Van Gogh, a distant relation of the famous painter, was a shocking moment for Dutch society. It turned Dutch politics towards a right-wing trajectory. Since then, Dutch governments have sought to curtail the movement of people into the Netherlands.

Following the Dutch elections in March the focus was on the populist anti-Islam politician Wilders, but he is merely a modern face of a much longer journey the Netherlands has been on. Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister stoked fears about migrants to win votes during the election. Most European leaders have welcomed his victory over Wilders. But for asylum seekers, the anti-migrant rhetoric and harsh policies will continue to feature in Dutch policy.

For them there is no hope for amnesties and people such as Teferi will continue to live in limbo. Terpstra says: “It will only get worse because of the politicians, they don’t want to give any amnesties anymore because they don’t want to give people any hope”.

Ismail Einashe is a freelance journalist based in London.

The specs

AT4 Ultimate, as tested

Engine: 6.2-litre V8

Power: 420hp

Torque: 623Nm

Transmission: 10-speed automatic

Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)

On sale: Now

The Sand Castle

Director: Matty Brown

Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea

Rating: 2.5/5

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Real estate tokenisation project

Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.

The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.

Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.

Courses%20at%20Istituto%20Marangoni%2C%20Dubai
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EUndergraduate%20courses%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3Cbr%3EInterior%20Design%3B%20Product%20Design%3B%20Visual%20Design%3B%20Fashion%20Design%20%26amp%3B%20Accessories%3B%20Fashion%20Styling%20%26amp%3B%20Creative%20Direction%3B%20Fashion%20Business%3B%20Foundation%20in%20Fashion%3B%20Foundation%20in%20Design%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EProfessional%20courses%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3Cbr%3EFashion%20e-Commerce%20%26amp%3B%20Digital%20Marketing%3B%20Fashion%20Entrepreneurship%3B%20Fashion%20Luxury%20Retail%20and%20Visual%20Merchandising%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EShort%20courses%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3Cbr%3EFashion%20design%3B%20Fashion%20Image%20%26amp%3B%20Styling%3B%20Fashion%20Trend%20Forecasting%3B%20Interior%20Design%3B%20Digital%20Art%20in%20Fashion%3Cbr%3EMore%20information%20is%20at%20%3Ca%20href%3D%22https%3A%2F%2Fwww.istitutomarangoni.com%2Fen%3Futm_source%3DLocal%26utm_medium%3Dorganic%26utm_campaign%3Dgmb%26utm_content%3Ddubai%22%20target%3D%22_self%22%3Ewww.istitutomarangoni.com%3C%2Fa%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
At a glance

Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.

 

Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year

 

Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month

 

Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30 

 

Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse

 

Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth

 

Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances

Emiratisation at work

Emiratisation was introduced in the UAE more than 10 years ago

It aims to boost the number of citizens in the workforce particularly in the private sector.

Growing the number of Emiratis in the workplace will help the UAE reduce dependence on overseas workers

The Cabinet in December last year, approved a national fund for Emirati jobseekers and guaranteed citizens working in the private sector a comparable pension

President Sheikh Khalifa has described Emiratisation as “a true measure for success”.

During the UAE’s 48th National Day, Sheikh Khalifa named education, entrepreneurship, Emiratisation and space travel among cornerstones of national development

More than 80 per cent of Emiratis work in the federal or local government as per 2017 statistics

The Emiratisation programme includes the creation of 20,000 new jobs for UAE citizens

UAE citizens will be given priority in managerial positions in the government sphere

The purpose is to raise the contribution of UAE nationals in the job market and create a diverse workforce of citizens

The Gentlemen

Director: Guy Ritchie

Stars: Colin Farrell, Hugh Grant 

Three out of five stars

Volvo ES90 Specs

Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)

Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp

Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm

On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region

Price: Exact regional pricing TBA

RESULTS

6.30pm Maiden (TB) Dh82.500 (Dirt) 1,400m

Winner Meshakel, Royston Ffrench (jockey), Salem bin Ghadayer (trainer)

7.05pm Handicap (TB) Dh87,500 (D) 1,400m

Winner Gervais, Connor Beasley, Ali Rashid Al Raihe.

7.40pm Handicap (TB) Dh92,500 (Turf) 2,410m

Winner Global Heat, Pat Cosgrave, Saeed bin Suroor.

8.15pm Handicap (TB) Dh105,000 (D) 1,900m

Winner Firnas, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer.

8.50pm UAE 2000 Guineas Trial (TB) Conditions Dh183,650 (D) 1,600m

Winner Rebel’s Romance, William Buick, Charlie Appleby

9.25pm Dubai Trophy (TB) Conditions Dh183,650 (T) 1,200m

Winner Topper Bill, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar

10pm Handicap (TB) Dh102,500 (T) 1,400m

Winner Wasim, Mickael Barzalona, Ismail Mohammed.

Stamp%20duty%20timeline
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
 
Started: 2021
 
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
 
Based: Tunisia 
 
Sector: Water technology 
 
Number of staff: 22 
 
Investment raised: $4 million 
Results

4pm: Maiden; Dh165,000 (Dirt); 1,400m
Winner: Solar Shower; William Lee (jockey); Helal Al Alawi (trainer)

4.35pm: Handicap; Dh165,000 (D); 2,000m
Winner: Thaaqib; Antonio Fresu; Erwan Charpy.

5.10pm: Maiden; Dh165,000 (Turf); 1,800m
Winner: Bila Shak; Adrie de Vries; Fawzi Nass

5.45pm: Handicap; Dh175,000 (D); 1,200m
Winner: Beachcomber Bay; Richard Mullen; Satish Seemar

6.20pm: Handicap;​​​​​​​ Dh205,000 (T); 1,800m
Winner: Muzdawaj; Jim Crowley;​​​​​​​ Musabah Al Muhairi

6.55pm: Handicap;​​​​​​​ Dh185,000 (D); 1,600m
Winner: Mazeed; Tadhg O’Shea;​​​​​​​ Satish Seemar

7.30pm: Handicap; Dh205,000 (T); 1,200m
Winner: Riflescope; Tadhg O’Shea;​​​​​​​ Satish Seemar.

HOW TO WATCH

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TikTok: @thenationalnews   

Where to buy

Limited-edition art prints of The Sofa Series: Sultani can be acquired from Reem El Mutwalli at www.reemelmutwalli.com

EA Sports FC 25
Company%20Profile
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENadeera%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Abu%20Dhabi%2C%20UAE%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ERabih%20El%20Chaar%20and%20Reem%20Khattar%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ECleanTech%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETotal%20funding%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20About%20%241%20million%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EHope%20Ventures%2C%20Rasameel%20Investments%20and%20support%20from%20accelerator%20programmes%20%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20employees%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2012%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Last 10 NBA champions

2017: Golden State bt Cleveland 4-1
2016: Cleveland bt Golden State 4-3
2015: Golden State bt Cleveland 4-2
2014: San Antonio bt Miami 4-1
2013: Miami bt San Antonio 4-3
2012: Miami bt Oklahoma City 4-1
2011: Dallas bt Miami 4-2
2010: Los Angeles Lakers bt Boston 4-3
2009: Los Angeles Lakers bt Orlando 4-1
2008: Boston bt Los Angeles Lakers 4-2

Aston martin DBX specs

Engine: 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8

Transmission: nine-speed automatic

Power: 542bhp

Torque: 700Nm

Top speed: 291kph

Price: Dh848,000

On sale: Q2, 2020
 

If you go...

Flying
There is no simple way to get to Punta Arenas from the UAE, with flights from Dubai and Abu Dhabi requiring at least two connections to reach this part of Patagonia. Flights start from about Dh6,250.

Touring
Chile Nativo offers the amended Los Dientes trek with expert guides and porters who are met in Puerto Williams on Isla Navarino. The trip starts and ends in Punta Arenas and lasts for six days in total. Prices start from Dh8,795.

Test

Director: S Sashikanth

Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan

Star rating: 2/5

Skewed figures

In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458. 

U19 World Cup in South Africa

Group A: India, Japan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka

Group B: Australia, England, Nigeria, West Indies

Group C: Bangladesh, Pakistan, Scotland, Zimbabwe

Group D: Afghanistan, Canada, South Africa, UAE

UAE fixtures

Saturday, January 18, v Canada

Wednesday, January 22, v Afghanistan

Saturday, January 25, v South Africa

UAE squad

Aryan Lakra (captain), Vriitya Aravind, Deshan Chethyia, Mohammed Farazuddin, Jonathan Figy, Osama Hassan, Karthik Meiyappan, Rishabh Mukherjee, Ali Naseer, Wasi Shah, Alishan Sharafu, Sanchit Sharma, Kai Smith, Akasha Tahir, Ansh Tandon

If you go

The flights
Etihad (etihad.com) flies from Abu Dhabi to Luang Prabang via Bangkok, with a return flight from Chiang Rai via Bangkok for about Dh3,000, including taxes. Emirates and Thai Airways cover the same route, also via Bangkok in both directions, from about Dh2,700.
The cruise
The Gypsy by Mekong Kingdoms has two cruising options: a three-night, four-day trip upstream cruise or a two-night, three-day downstream journey, from US$5,940 (Dh21,814), including meals, selected drinks, excursions and transfers.
The hotels
Accommodation is available in Luang Prabang at the Avani, from $290 (Dh1,065) per night, and at Anantara Golden Triangle Elephant Camp and Resort from $1,080 (Dh3,967) per night, including meals, an activity and transfers.

A MINECRAFT MOVIE

Director: Jared Hess

Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa

Rating: 3/5

The White Lotus: Season three

Creator: Mike White

Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell

Rating: 4.5/5

US households add $601bn of debt in 2019

American households borrowed another $601 billion (Dh2.2bn) in 2019, the largest yearly gain since 2007, just before the global financial crisis, according to February data from the New York Federal Reserve Bank.

Fuelled by rising mortgage debt as homebuyers continued to take advantage of low interest rates, the increase last year brought total household debt to a record high, surpassing the previous peak reached in 2008 just before the market crash, according to the report.

Following the 22nd straight quarter of growth, American household debt swelled to $14.15 trillion by the end of 2019, the New York Fed said in its quarterly report.

In the final three months of the year, new home loans jumped to their highest volume since the fourth quarter of 2005, while credit cards and auto loans also added to the increase.

The bad debt load is taking its toll on some households, and the New York Fed warned that more and more credit card borrowers — particularly young people — were falling behind on their payments.

"Younger borrowers, who are disproportionately likely to have credit cards and student loans as their primary form of debt, struggle more than others with on-time repayment," New York Fed researchers said.

Key Points
  • Protests against President Omar Al Bashir enter their sixth day
  • Reports of President Bashir's resignation and arrests of senior government officials
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe

Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010

Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille

Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm

Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year

Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”

Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners

TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013 

NO OTHER LAND

Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal

Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham

Rating: 3.5/5

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A timeline of the Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language
  • 2018: Formal work begins
  • November 2021: First 17 volumes launched 
  • November 2022: Additional 19 volumes released
  • October 2023: Another 31 volumes released
  • November 2024: All 127 volumes completed
The specs

Engine: 4.0-litre, six-cylinder

Transmission: six-speed manual

Power: 395bhp

Torque: 420Nm

Price: from Dh321,200

On sale: now

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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Specs

Engine: 51.5kW electric motor

Range: 400km

Power: 134bhp

Torque: 175Nm

Price: From Dh98,800

Available: Now

The Buckingham Murders

Starring: Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ash Tandon, Prabhleen Sandhu

Director: Hansal Mehta

Rating: 4 / 5

The specs: 2018 Chevrolet Trailblazer

Price, base / as tested Dh99,000 / Dh132,000

Engine 3.6L V6

Transmission: Six-speed automatic

Power 275hp @ 6,000rpm

Torque 350Nm @ 3,700rpm

Fuel economy combined 12.2L / 100km

MATCH STATS

Wolves 0

Aston Villa 1 (El Ghazi 90 4' pen)

Red cards: Joao Moutinho (Wolves); Douglas Luiz (Aston Villa)

Man of the match: Emi Martinez (Aston Villa)