'Asielzoekers' in the Netherlands

My daughter, Leah, has just completed writing an essay on refugees looking for asylum in the Netherlands. It's funny how your own children can surprise you...

I read the essay last night and was really impressed by the essay and even more so by her opinions which she expresses very forcefully. I quote from the concluding chapter:

Van dit werkstuk heb ik ook geleerd dat het echt geen pretje is om te moeten vluchten en dan hier in Nederland weer een nieuw leven te moeten op bouwen in een asielzoekerscentrum. Als ik in een van de asielzoekers schoenen zou moeten staan zou ik het nooit uit houden. Ook zie ik dat ik het wel heel goed heb vergeleken met al die mensen die nog aan het vluchten zijn. Wat moeten die mensen toch bang zijn...

Leah, and other children at her primary school in a small Dutch village, are confronted on a daily basis with the fate of those seeking asylum because a number of their fellow pupils come from an 'asielzoekerscentrum' in the neighbourhood. Both Leah and her younger brother have seen children crying in class because the family has been refused 'status' and they have heard how difficult it is to do homework (and even to get to sleep on time) if your whole family is living in one room. Leah's six year old brother has been very concerned about one of his fellow classmates who was repatriated from the Netherlands last year: 'In her mother's country, there is often war, and in her father's country, there is war all the time...'