When the food ran out, he had to go outside. In the supermarket he met a Dutch couple, whom he helped carry their groceries. More meetings followed and after a while Mo dared to ask for help. 'I had to. The smuggler didn't show up anymore, the landlord wanted to throw me out. I was on the street, without money.' His new friends, fellow believers, gave him shelter in their own house. 'I am eternally grateful to them.'  

Together they looked at the options and decided that Mo had to report to the nearest police station. There he was given a day ticket to Ter Apel, where his procedure began. After six days in the overcrowded asylum seekers' centre, he moved to the tent camp in Nijmegen. And later to Budel. Mo is now staying in Goes, in a Van der Valk hotel that serves as a reception centre. He has been waiting there for months for his second interview by the IND. 

'Going crazy' 

Mo doesn't sit still while waiting. 'Do something. I advise every refugee to do that. Waiting can drive you crazy. Doing nothing is lurking, but that confuses your thoughts. Make yourself useful, use whatever talent you have.' His talent is English, so he does translation work wherever he can. For refugees who only speak Farsi, but also for Christian social media channels. He teaches language to other asylum seekers and does volunteer work in local church communities and as a teaching assistant at a primary school. Two days a week he helps the teacher with printing and preparing lessons. Sometimes he also runs simple lessons with the children.