Go No Go, 1988-2002 - Agence VU'

Go No Go, 1988-2002

Ad Van Denderen

Schengen borders, asylum seekers and immigrants in Europe

In Go No Go, Ad Van Denderen leads us along the edges of Europe where immigrants try to reach the West along smugglers’ paths, with varying success. He takes us along to the polices stations and refugee centres where , surrounded by their first-thick dossiers, investigators try to determine the identities of the refugees.

He shows us how men kill time in pension until a band of smugglers can get them over the umpteenth border. He follows the refugees right up to the barbed wire at the rail tunnel at Calais, where they cut their way through, and further , until they are confronted with the next fence laced with barbed wire.

1998 - Three men from Bangladeh arrive at the pension in which the Pakistanis from Punjab are hiding. The price for the trip to Athens is agreed upon $600 per person. The money must be paid from the ABN-AMRO Bank in Pakistan to a bank in Istanbul. Friends and family members in Punjab are telephoned for money. Pakistanis in Athens also collect money to get the group there. In this case the smugglers agree that the money will be paid in Athens. Their passports are sent to Athens by mail, so that if they are caught the border police will not be able to determine their identity.

1 2 3

ARCHIVES CONTACT