26.000 gezichten (26.000 faces)

'26.000 gezichten' is an initiative of over 100 Dutch filmmakers. We want to give a face to a large group of asylum seekers, who will be expelled from Holland over the next 3 years. They all came to Holland to seek asylum in the period before April 2001, when the asylum-law has become more restrictive.

Our aim is to try and bring this issue back to the public debate and to the political agenda. We want to try and get one short film (of between 1 and 5 minutes) on Dutch TV every day, for as long as this issue has not been resolved. What we offer is our creativity and director skills. Using those, we want to show the Dutch public who they are, these large numbers, show some of their lives, show their children who have become integrated in our society.

We started this project because we don't believe that the problem around this group of asylum seekers should be resolved by simply sending them back to the countries where they have fled from. Almost all of them originally come from regions that have suffered war, excessive structural violence and persecution. Almost all have been affected badly by these circumstances. The first initiator of the project is working as a psychologist and family therapist with traumatized families. He has seen the ham that is being done to the children in these families, by keeping them in insecurity for so long.

Previous governments have not invested enough in making the asylum procedures work smoothly. As a result, many of the asylum seekers that fled to Holland in the Nineties of the last century have had to wait for final decisions on their appeals for well over 5 years and sometimes even over 10 years. All these years, the adults involved were not allowed to work or study. Moreover, they were kept in very basic facilities, often living with 4 or 5 people in one room of -say- 5 by 7 meters, without private bathrooms or toilets. Their children can visit schools until they age of 18. They mostly speak Dutch fluently, with beautiful local accents even, see a future for themselves, often do very well in school indeed. But after 18, they have to stop all of that development.

Our present government, and specifically, the Minister of Alien Affairs and Integration, Mrs. Rita Verdonk, has decided to resolve this problem by expelling all the people that came here to ask asylum before 2001, as soon as they have lost their appeals. She claims, this will finally be a group of 26.000 people. Experts believe, it actually involves a lot less people (around 8.000). She is said use this large number, to evade discussion on other options, like a general wave (in Holland called general pardon). She wants to carry out this decision without hesitation, with force, if necessary. These plans, that were supported early this year by our (conservatively dominated) parliament, have receive broad and strong opposition in society.

The group of filmmakers of '26.000 faces' believe that it is both inhuman and irresponsible to resolve the problem of this large group of people who are still waiting for residency by planning to export them. For one, most of these people will not have a good future in the country where they have fled from. Most of them will not cooperate voluntarily to go back. Also, a lot of them have no legal travelling papers. The countries that should take them back, often don't want to cooperate providing them with these papers. Many more people simply don't have papers because they have lost their citizenship of the country that persecuted them. As a result, most of the people that the Dutch government want to send back, will never effectively leave the country. Instead, they will feel forced to live illegally, that means out on the streets. They will have no income, no health care, no roof.

Those are the reasons for our indignation, the motives to make these short films. We hope to be able to continue bringing this issue to the public domain. We believe this is our duty and responsibility in Democracy. A first series was shown on Regional TV and is now aired on national TV. Also, this first series is showing at the International Documentary Film Festival (IDFA) in Amsterdam. Currently, we talk to two different channels about the production of new series, to be broadcasted in national TV as from the end of December this year.

On this website, the public can view the films that have been made public. We made an effort to present the films with English subtitles.

Copyright lies with the producer: Stichting 26.000 Gezichten, Utrecht.
Press and sales can refer to: Producer Joost Bosland: joostbosland@wanadoo.nl.
Other questions or reactions can be send to: info@26000gezichten.nl.