The asylum youngsters who did not go to the Efteling are also not at the fair. ‘Amazing that things are going wrong here in the village so quickly’

Chris (16), butt behind his left ear, black bomber jacket, stands with friends and his little brother in front of the entrance of the Sint Annaparochie fair. « I am not so impressed when my homes are in the news, » says Chris. « I also lived in Zandvoort. » « Are we in the news? » Asks his brother (14). « It was on Reddit, » says Chris.

There he read that Minister Faber (asylum and migration, PVV) had been thwarting plans of the Central Agency for Asylum Seekers (COA) to send unaccompanied minor asylum seekers from the village to Efteling. The plan was conceived to keep the asylum youth away from the Dorpsjeugd during the local fair. « A precautionary measure, » the COA spokesperson called it on 1 May in the Leeuwarder Courant. Because last year, at the end of the evening, a fight between the two groups broke out a few tens of meters from the party tent. It came to a stabbing, in which three men (from 18, 20 and 22 years old) from Sint Annaparochie were injured. The asylum seekers involved were transferred to another center after the stabbing. What exactly happened is not clear.

Minister Faber responded to X on the Efteling plan of the COA. She wrote that she thought the « on-from-Leg-Baar » to send the youngsters « at the expense of the taxpayer on a candy trip ». Sint Annaparochie, a Frisian village with five thousand inhabitants, suddenly became national news. In the Chamber, Faber said later this month that an amusement park visit would have ‘sucking effect’ on new groups of refugees. She now wants to cut back on the COA activity budget.

Somewhere else

For example, the asylum youngsters from Sint Annaparochie did not go to Efteling today. But they are also not at the fair. It confirms COA that they are somewhere else, but also makes ‘no more statements’ about the issue.

So yes, what does Chris, in training as a legal specialist, still say? He thought an outing for the asylum youngsters was a good idea. « Many refugees are in plight situations, they are already being disadvantaged. » Only, « to be honest, » Chris De Efteling also thinks « not very spectacular. » « Maybe nice for small children. If you can still choose from all the amusement parks in the Netherlands … I would say Walibi earlier. » Or he might send the young people to a museum sooner, he says. « That way you could possibly interest them more in Western culture, that they understand more. »

The COA confirms that the asylum youngsters are somewhere else

Asylum seekers have been taking care of asylum seekers in Sint Annaparochie for more than twenty years. The asylum seekers’ center, with four hundred residents, is just outside the village, a fifteen minute walk from the village center. The asylum seekers stay there in an old office building and in eighty gray mobile homes. The group of unaccompanied minor asylum seekers-the young people who were not allowed on Efteling outing-are only taken care of for a few years. Two years ago, part of the site, with the consent of the city council, was set up for the reception of fifty unaccompanied minor asylum seekers. It is young people between 13 and 18 years old who have applied for asylum in the Netherlands on their own, without parents.

At the beginning of this year they ended up in a back bus in a fight with the local youth. The Leeuwarder Courant Writes that the bus had to be put aside in order not to jeopardize the safety of the other passengers. According to the newspaper, since then ‘all frustrations about young refugees in particular have been opened openly’.

‘A lot of miscommunications’

In front of the entrance of the fairground, Chris says that it « is actually amazing » that « here in the village is going wrong so quickly. » He saw it happen to a game of football between the villagers and the asylum seekers – who calls everyone in the village ‘the AZC people’. « Then it will soon be rough game, » says Chris. Only, who is guilty of that? « If I were to move in the AZC people, I might take a little racist what happens. But as a villager you could say: they are only out for a fight. There are a lot of miscommunications that are not pronounced. And then it sometimes ends in higher things. »

Other boys from Sint Annaparochie also acknowledge that there are some tensions. But that is mainly due to some – « losers » – from the village itself, say two boys aged 17 and 18 further (« No, not by name, otherwise everyone knows that we are. » « They are just farmers, they put everyone in boxes, » says the oldest of the two. « You are talking about your own people now, » says the youngest indignantly.

The spokesperson is broke at home. « He made it late yesterday »

On the fairground itself, it is not noticeable that the event was used by a national riot. Under a gray sky, people step into the Trip Temptation or the merry -go -round from which ‘whatever will be will be’ sounds on full volume. There are people from the village, there are refugees. No single young people, but families with young children. The security guards – ‘scaled up, that was a wish of the municipality’ – refer to the chairman at the entrance for questions. It is outside the party tent, next to the Kaattoernooi. He says he has no opinion about Faber’s statements. « I’m not going to say anything, you have to have the spokesperson for that. » The spokesperson is only broke at home. « He made it late yesterday. »

Chris was not at the fair when the stabbing took place last year. He was walking his dog, he says, and saw the ambulances. « I don’t know how this became national news. That stabbing did not represent that much either. OK, it was a stabbing, but that is always a risk when you are at the fair. »

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