Chris Keulemans is een reizende schrijver, met Amsterdam-Noord als thuisbasis. Hij was lange tijd voorzitter van ASKV / Steunpunt Vluchtelingen. De afgelopen jaren bezocht hij Kyiv, Dnipro en Lviv als coach voor nieuwe cultuurcentra in deze steden, namens het netwerk Trans Europe Halles. In maart reisde hij twee weken langs de Poolse grenzen met Oekraïne en Belarus.
Solidarity with Refugees
(by Chris Keulemans, journalist and writer)
The arrival of Ukrainian refugees does not lead to a better understanding of refugees from other war zones. Instead, it leads to a razor-sharp dichotomy between good and unwanted (war) refugees and to a marginalization of asylum seekers and status holders from the Global South. Is that inevitable? Or can the experience of war in Europe lead to more empathy and a more humane asylum policy also for non-Western victims of war and violence?
Chris Keulemans is a traveling writer, based in Amsterdam-North. He was chairman of the Amsterdam Refugee Support Center for a long time. In recent years he visited Kyiv, Dnipro and Lviv as a coach for new cultural centers in these cities, on behalf of the Trans Europe Halles network. In March he traveled for two weeks along the Polish borders with Ukraine and Belarus.
