Dutch Gameshow Pits Failed Asylum Seekers Against Each Other

This is the trailer for the new weekly Dutch gameshow called 'Weg van Nederland', which means either Leaving the Netherlands or Mad About the Netherlands. In the show the contestants (the failed asylum seekers) are flanked by women dressed as air hostesses as they answer questions about Dutch culture, language and history.

The would-be immigrant who has learnt the most about the Netherlands during his/her stay wins £3,500 to spend after deportation. The losers win 'consolation prizes’ which include a bag of tulips bulbs and a bullet proof vest.

Now you might think WTF is wrong with Dutch TV and morals, but as the well educated, eloquent contestants who include an aeronautical engineer from Cameroon and a Slavic languages student facing removal to Chechnya take to the screen it becomes clear that the intention is, far from mocking asylum seekers, to instead demonstrate how well integrated many are.

People watching the show can play along using the internet to answer the same questions, but their prize is a flight – return, of course – to the Dutch-governed Caribbean island of Curaçao.

The broadcaster VPRO claims the show is a direct retort to tightening immigration and asylum laws in a country previously seen as one of the world's more liberal nations over new arrivals, reports The Guardian. This changing attitude has been both spearheaded and exemplified by Geert Wilders, the vehemently anti-Muslim, far-right politician whose PVV party is now the third biggest in parliament, holding the balance of power.

In comments quoted by another Dutch public broadcaster, RNW, the head of VPRO, Frank Wiering, said he was extremely sceptical when the idea was first brought to him. "My first reaction was: terrible idea, we're not doing that. Then I looked into the issue more deeply and decided we have to do this.

"Weg van Nederland focuses attention on the fact that, these days, many asylum seekers who are being expelled have children who have lived in the Netherlands for eight years or more. They have had a good education, speak perfect Dutch and have only seen their country of birth on television. We believe it's time to stop and think about this."

The contestants are, he added, "highly intelligent, self-assured people quite capable of deciding for themselves whether to take part or not".

The programme has won support of a group that works with asylum seekers. Wouter van Zandwijk from Vluchtelingenwerk told RNW: "We're hoping Weg van Nederland makes more people think about how we treat asylum seekers, that they understand more about what asylum seekers go through.

"Sometimes it takes far too long before they know whether they can stay. Vluchtelingenwerk would like a fast but careful asylum procedure. Young people who have spent so many years in the Netherlands are often more Dutch than Afghan or Somali and more at home here than in their country of origin."

The show echoes a controversial 2007 programme made by another Dutch broadcaster, BNN. De Grote Donorshow, or The Big Donor Show, featured three people needing a kidney transplant supposedly competing to win the organ from a terminally ill woman. The supposed donor was an actor, and while the contestants genuinely needed transplants they knew the show was fake and intended to raise awareness.

Weg van Nederland is genuine though, Wiering said: "The candidates are not actors, they are genuine unsuccessful asylum seekers who have to leave this country within a month or two."

Sources: The Guardian, BBC, The Telegraph