Today, while standing outside of a Bagels and Beans in Leiden, I was admiring a brand new electric bike. It looked awesome. When the owner saw me checking out his beautiful bike, we started talking. Hamza is from Syria and lives in an AZC. He hasn’t seen his parents, who are still living in Syria, in 12 years. He hasn’t seen his son, daughter and wife, who are living in Turkey, for 2 and a half years. He proudly showed me their photographs.

With the help of a translation app, we talked and had a coffee, while he was waiting for his “Thuisbezorgd” order to be ready to be delivered.