Dutch villagers, refugees celebrate Christmas together

This music video, recorded in Oranje village, Drenthe province, the Netherlands, says about itself:

Christmas on December 21, 2015 in refugee accommodation Oranje was a blast party with great music and dancing. Here refugees from various countries and Dutch people danced together in a brotherly way to Eritrean music.

Regional broadcasting corporation RTV Drenthe reports about this today (translated):

Refugee center Oranje and villagers celebrate Christmas: “Others should take this as their example”

ORANJE – Residents of the refugee center in Oranje, together with residents of the village, celebrated a Christmas accompanied by singing and dancing.

Hundreds of people were present. The organization of the festival was by the refugee accommodation management.

Food and music

Tables full of food were ready for guests. The interdenominational platform had called upon churches in Westerbork, Beilen, Smilde, Bovensmilde and Assen to deliver that. Henk Timmerman: “We had this afternoon five cars full of food”. Asylum seekers also prepared snacks for the party.

Professional musician residents of the refugee center made the music. Prior to that, the songs with as their theme ‘freedom‘ had already been rehearsed jointly.

Example

“Others should take this as their example, how this is in Oranje. You always hear negative things about these people and now they can learn to think positively about these people,” says a local resident.

Alderman Gert Jan Bent was present on behalf of the local authorities. He thinks it’s a great initiative. “Oranje shows that people together, of the refugee reception center and the village can be a community,” says Bent.

As far as the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) is concerned, this Christmas will be repeated.

By: Petra Wijnsema

Dutch NOS TV writes about this today (translated):

In the village Oranje there was great unrest earlier this year. … Two buses with refugees were then attacked.

In January 1949, Dutch nazi daily Het Nationaal Dagblad incited people against Jewish refugees from nazi Germany in a very similar way that the neonazi Nederlandse Volksunie, and Geert Wilders, do today: see here.