What happened behind the fences of the overcrowded registration center for asylum seekers in Ter Apel in 2023?

In the year the Dutch cabinet resigned over a dispute on asylum policy, ICU Documentaries obtained exclusive access to a world normally carefully shielded from the outside.

We filmed how asylum seekers had to sleep on the floor of the IND waiting rooms in Ter Apel. In December we witnessed how the IND leadership decided, after the visit of the inspectorate, that sleeping in the waiting rooms was no longer allowed.

For a year, we followed the process asylum seekers go through from the moment they first report to apply for asylum until the moment they are granted asylum or are told that they have to leave the Netherlands.

The makers received permission to record the interrogations of the immigration police (AVIM) and the interrogations of the IND with the camera. The Return and Departure Service (DT&V) also gave permission to film so-called departure interviews with asylum seekers who have exhausted all legal remedies.

Before refugees arrive in Ter Apel, they have often already completed a long and dangerous journey. To map these travel routes, we filmed in Syria, Ethiopia, Serbia and on the border of Belarus and Poland. We were also present on the MSF ship Geo Barents in the Mediterranean. Here we witnessed pushbacks by the Libyan coast guard and filmed a very complicated rescue of 440 refugees from a ship in distress.

Our new four-part documentary series for BNNVARA offers an unprecedented insight into the heart of the asylum crisis and also shows the conditions on the life-threatening escape routes before refugees apply for asylum in the Netherlands.

The World in Ter Apel will be broadcast BNNVARA on the second channel of Dutch Public Television from Wednesday, January 10 at 10:15 PM. All episodes are available free of charge on our website.