In recent years, xenophobia has been on the rise in the Netherlands, as in many other European countries. Populist political parties that want to close the borders to foreigners, especially refugees, are gaining more and more support. Refugees are increasingly becoming the scapegoats for everything that is not going well in the country, such as the housing shortage (which in fact has all sorts of causes).
To make a counter-voice heard, the Wittem Monastery – Pilgrimage Center for St. Gerard Majella in the south of the Netherlands – started to organize a monthly series of meetings called ‘No need to flee anymore – stories of (former) refugees’. The initiative came from Father Henk Erinkveld, the rector of the monastery, who is also representing the monastery in a solidarity platform for refugees in the region. The idea of these meetings is to let a refugee tell about his or her life, before and after the flight. In this way, we want to show that refugees are people of flesh and blood, people looking for safety and happiness, people like ourselves, with their anxieties, needs and hopes for the future.
The first meeting was on Sunday afternoon, October 6, in the Scala meeting room of the monastery. The guest was Bashar hai Khalil, a young man who fled Syria more than 10 years ago. He has been living in a village near the monastery for a number of years now. Father Erinkveld interviewed him, for an audience of more than thirty people.
Bashar told his very personal story about his long flight from Syria through Turkey on foot, by boat to Greece and from there again on foot – many weeks of walking – to Italy. Then on to the Netherlands, where a travelling companion, a Syrian fellow villager, had friends. In the Netherlands, he applied for asylum (he fled the country, where the family made a good living, because of the war) and lived in different refugee centers for a few years. Eventually, he got a house close to the Wittem Monastery. His father and an elderly brother had since died in the war in Syria. He has not seen his mother since his departure, only sometimes by FaceTime. In good spirits he is trying to build a life in Wittem, integrating in the local village society and earning his money as a parcel deliverer.
Bashar spoke somewhat hesitantly and shyly; it was clear that he was not used to speaking in public and about his own personal life. But that’s what made his story even more sincere.
The preparatory group led by Father Erinkveld looks back on the meeting with satisfaction. We know that with these meetings we will probably not change the minds of people who continue to follow the populist view on the refugee theme, but we aim to strengthen the ‘people of goodwill’ to be able to raise their voices against the aggression against refugees and foreigners. Of course, it is a drop in the ocean. But perhaps also the drop that erodes the stone.
Ageeth Potma and Jelle Wind, lay community members of the Wittem Monastery
