Luisterverhaal op zondag: Hoe mijn vader een Nederlands paspoort kreeg

·24 min·2 clips

Tan Tunale found immigration officers wrote that her parents' marriage was fake and there was no Dutch interest in her father.

This episode of NRC Vandaag features Tan Tunale narrating a personal investigation into her father's immigration journey. Her father, Mehmet, fled Turkey after the 1980 military coup due to his work at a leftist newspaper. He arrived in the Netherlands via Germany without valid papers. Tan explains she always wondered about the specifics of how he eventually naturalized. She spent months researching, speaking to family members and visiting the National Archive in The Hague. There, she accessed his IND immigration file, which contained shocking bureaucratic language. Officers wrote that her parents' marriage was not real, only for papers, and that her father held no physical Dutch interest. Tan describes this as confronting and personal. She connects this historical case to current politics, noting parallels with growing right-wing sentiment and proposed laws criminalizing illegal stay. The narrative details her father's background: growing up in Istanbul, traveling to Europe, working as an illustrator, and meeting her mother in Amsterdam. They married in 1984 in Beerta, East-Groningen, using a post identity card because he lacked a passport. Despite the wedding, his residence permit was rejected a year later on grounds of a fake marriage. Tan recounts how the file revealed a catch-22: he needed a passport for a residence permit but couldn't get one from Turkey due to avoiding military service. Officials suggested he return to Turkey, ignoring the dangers under the junta. In 1989, the Council of State ruled against him, ordering deportation. Tan reflects on how her life might have differed if he had been deported. Unexpectedly, interventions followed: her grandfather wrote to State Secretary Virginie Korte van Hemel, her mother wrote to Queen Beatrix, and former minister Wilhelm Friedrich de Geyf-Vortman intervened. A naturalization request was approved, and King Beatrix signed the royal decree in December 1989. Her father picked up his passport in Amsterdam, but Tan notes the lasting bitterness and stress that contributed to her parents' divorce. She concludes by linking his experience to broader issues like the 2005 Schiphol fire and current European border policies.

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