Exhibition: 1997

Rejection or admittance. Those are the possible outcomes of the asylum procedure. Dutch asylum policy is based on the Refugee Treaty of Geneva from 1951. According to this treaty a refugee is somebody who has 'a well-grounded fear for persecution in his/her country of origin because of his/her race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or the membership of a particular social group.‘ An asylum seeker is an alien who requests to be recognized as a refugee. In 1994 more than 52,000 people claimed asylum in The Netherlands. In 1995 there were only 29,000, 4,000 of whom were rejected immediately.

Photograph Koen Wessing followed asylum seekers from their arrival at the Dutch border until their stay in various asylum seeker centres.

Koen Wessing