The Antilles islands are the last Dutch colonial heritage and located in the Caribbean. In the colonial times the islands where used to sell and transit slaves and in present time the islands are popular tourist destination, but are also used to smuggle cocaine to the west.
The population of the Antilles is mostly very poor, so many young people decide to try their luck in the Netherlands, their “motherland”. Since they have the Dutch nationality it is quite easy to enter The Netherlands, but once they arrived usually the misery continues.
Many youngsters coming from the Antilles end up in poverty and crime. Some say that the migrants from the Antilles islands are worse off in the Netherlands than asylum seekers, even though they have Dutch passports.
The program Europamagazin from the German first public TV channel ARD broadcast a portrait of baseball club Bantopa in the Amsterdam south East, that offers structure and attention to Antillean and other migrant youngsters. The youngsters can join the baseball club and at the same time follow special homework courses, so there is less of a chance that they end up in crime.
For this background reportage Featurez did the research, set-up and planning of the filming, booked a camera crew, did the direction and interviews and did translations.