Personal stories

Why do you have to flee? What do you have to do before you can reunite with your family? Read the answers to these and other questions in the personal stories.

Ieteke recalls: ‘Refugees had nowhere to go in Curaçao’

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1 Feb

It was January 2018 when Ieteke Inchi Witteveen (77) decided to roll up her sleeves and take action…

‘I didn’t want to fight for the militias that murdered my father’

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1 Feb

The horrific violence in the Sudanese region of Darfur has been part of Mokhtar's reality since…

Aliou: Driving a migrant boat makes me a hero or a criminal?

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2 Oct

Over the last decade, thousands of people have been arrested by the Italian government based on…

'I’ve seen all the seasons go by in this container house'

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8 Dec

After a horrific journey, Suzan and her three sons barely managed to reach Europe from Syria. Now…

Desperately waiting for family reunification

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21 Nov

The family reunification of refugees is deliberately delayed in order to solve the national…

Asim: like a father to many

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11 Oct

'Baba Asim' is like a father to many refugees. In the Bosnian border town of Bihać, his small…

Pushbacks in Europe: 'They deliberately shot around our feet'

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24 Aug

The story of Reza and his family is as horrifying as it is heartbreaking. In 2019, the persecuted…

The two realities of refugee reception in Hungary

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2 Aug

Millions of Ukrainians have fled their country since the outbreak of the war. Neighbouring Hungary…

Years of uncertainty about asylum application: 'I try to switch off my feelings. It's too hard.'

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19 May

Cyprus is dealing with tens of thousands of refugees and only a handful of organisations working on…

Step Up project: Jobs for better integration in Greece

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18 May

The Dutch Council for Refugees supports our Greek partner organisation, the Greek Council for…