In the new edition of Vox, residents of the temporary asylum seekers centre Heumensoord tell their story. Mohammed Ramadan (43), who worked as a forklift driver in Damascus: ‘I hope to be reunited with my family very soon.’

 

“Here in this video you can see my family during better days in Damascus. My wife and three children are still there and I’m worried about them. Recently, in the town where they lived, fifty kilometres from Damascus, rockets rained down from all sides; the Syrian army, from the Iranians and from Hezbollah. My family was able to escape and now lives closer to the capital where things are somewhat safer.

Once I get through the procedures here, I want to bring my family to the Netherlands as soon as possible. I chose the Netherlands because family reunification is relatively easy here. But it will still take a lot of time; I can understand this given that so many people want to apply for asylum, including some people posing as Syrians and applying under false pretences with fake passports. I was a forklift driver at Nestlé, in a factory that now lies in ruins. I hope to work again at the same company, but I’m open to anything else that may come my way.

It was a long journey, through Turkey on a rickety boat and a far too dangerous crossing to Greece: the vessel was just over seven meters with sixty people on board. Human traffickers brought us further into Europe, through Hungary, Macedonia, Serbia, Austria, Germany and finally here. If I have to, I will stay in the Netherlands, but I would prefer to return when it’s safe again. Syria is the country where I belong.” / Paul van den Broek

This story is also published in Vox #2.