Mohamed Bah, 29, knows well what it’s like to be an undocumented immigrant. From his native Guinea, he arrived in Amsterdam in 2019, after a journey in which he claims that he suffered police mistreatment and crossed the Strait in a boat, to end up living on the streets in the Dutch city. Therefore, his plans, a podcast and one app, They focus on helping those who are in that situation. He shares his plans via video call, with a dull smile: “Alhamdulillah [gracias a Dios, en árabe], I already have a house. The studio is fully operational. I just returned from a month of touring for the production of the third season of City Rights Radio [el podcast Radio de los derechos de la ciudad]. Also, the Amsterdam City Rights app will have updates very soon,” he says, with a perfect command of English.
As he produces new episodes of the show, which are recorded in that language in collaboration with experts, migrants and activists, and serves as a host, Bah is also dedicated to educating the future generation of creators of podcasts, having taught himself from scratch.
In 2021, it inaugurated City Rights Radio with the support of the organization Here To Support. Its objective was to establish an open and safe forum where the rights of undocumented migrants could be vindicated and their stories and experiences disseminated, addressing immigration issues, in addition to creating a safe community.
In Europe, there are widespread prejudices that consider the majority of arriving migrants to be stupid or illiterate.
Mohamed Bah
“In Europe, there are broad prejudices that consider the majority of arriving migrants to be stupid or illiterate,” says Bah, who aims to dismantle these harmful narratives and focus on issues of migration and human rights. Although he recognizes that “prejudice will continue to exist for many years to come,” he is committed to his work of changing perceptions.
“There are organizations dedicated to migration that carry out numerous projects; However, the results are often disconnected from the migrant communities themselves. For this reason, we decided to create a medium that would be closer to these communities,” he emphasizes.
It is difficult to know the exact number of people living in the Netherlands in an irregular situation. According to the latest available estimates, It was estimated that between mid-2017 and mid-2018, between 23,000 and 58,000 undocumented migrants resided. This group has only limited access to social services, such as basic healthcare and shelter. Every day they face the fear of being deported or isolated, and live in harsh socioeconomic conditions. One of them was Mohamed Bah.
The trauma of police mistreatment
Bah’s journey from Guinea to Holland began under difficult circumstances. In Morocco, he says, he received threats and mistreatment by the police, like the rest of the migrants, which created a trauma for him. He crossed to Huelva on a boat, and fearing suffering the same experience from the Spanish police, and knowing that English was spoken in Amsterdam, he decided to request asylum there.
The young man remembers his arrival in Holland in an episode titled Let people see us as Ukrainians. In it he relates: “They asked me why I chose Holland to request asylum. “I told them I believed part of paradise could be found there.” His response caused a sarcastic smile from the interlocutor. This experience revealed to Mohamed a harsh reality: “Many people in Europe do not live, they simply survive.”
His asylum application was rejected due to Dublin Convention, which requires making the request in the first European country of entry, in your case Spain. Bah had to survive on the streets for months. Eventually, she found refuge in a shelter for immigrants in the same situation, where he had the right to stay for 18 months, marking the first time she had a stable place to live.
We seek to offer an alternative reality to that disseminated by the mass media. We tell stories of migrants to raise awareness about their situations
Mohamed Bah
“You can’t take on all the battles on your own. Therefore, in City Rights Radio We seek to offer an alternative reality to that normally disseminated by the mass media. We tell migrant stories and produce podcasts to raise awareness about their situations,” he insists.
The harsh reality of living in destitution without documents, without access to medical care, unable to open a bank account to buy public transport tickets, without the right to education or work, and even without the possibility of taking a decent shower, along with The constant fear of being detained and deported was what motivated Bah to transform not only his own destiny, but also that of others who shared his same situation. “No person is illegal,” he asserts.
“When the coronavirus hit, everything was closed and the information was mostly in Dutch, which left us undocumented people not knowing where to go. It was then, during my stay at the center, and after conversations with an Italian friend, that we found a solution thanks to the help of his father, who coincidentally owns a manufacturing company. software: create an application for our community. And so it was born Amsterdam City Rights with the support of the organization Here To Support, because information is the key.”
Inspired by personal and collective struggles, Mohamed Bah undertook the development of this app in English in 2022. This resource is designed to facilitate access for immigrants in Amsterdam to basic needs such as housing, food, clothing, and essential services — including support for vulnerable communities such as LGBT, women, and children, as well as administrative advice and legal-. It has exceeded a thousand downloads and has allowed various organizations to centralize and share essential information, making it a widely recommended tool within the migrant community. There are currently plans to expand it to Utrecht, which will significantly expand its impact.
To give migrants access to vital information for themselves, especially when they face rejection by official institutions due to their status, and reduce their vulnerability to the bureaucratic system, the application includes a section called “Know your rights in the city”. “We decided to focus on helping people who are on the move, who are undocumented in Amsterdam, to empower them with their own information,” she emphasizes.
Bah’s story stands out at a time of deep debates about migration in Europe, with the rise of leaders who “instrumentalize the issue of migration” such as Geert Wilders, a far-right leader in the Netherlands, whose Party for Freedom (PVV ) won the elections in November 2023 with anti-immigrant campaigns, and on May 16 he reached a coalition agreement to govern, although he will not be prime minister. Mohamed obtained residency in the Netherlands in 2022. However, he reflects on the lack of political representation of migrants and the stigma associated with being a refugee or undocumented, which he maintains creates an underclass of citizens in Europe.
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