Yesterday, Anna* left Amsterdam Schiphol at 17:20. She is heading back to Jakarta, Indonesia. We met five days before her departure. She greeted me with a warm smile but admitted she was nervous about sharing her story.
As soon as we sat down, she began talking about her career. Her résumé painted the picture of a skilled professional who had worked for some of the largest banking and healthcare companies. She had built a comfortable life and enjoyed sharing what she had with family and friends. With pride, she showed me a photo of her son. ‘He went to university and now speaks both Spanish and English fluently,’ she said with a smile.
Things changed after she left her job at the age of 57. Finding new employment proved impossible. In Indonesia, people can retire from the age of 59, yet Anna was not ready to stop working. Her financial situation did not allow it, and she still hoped to fulfil a long-held dream of working abroad.
As her savings dwindled, she turned to friends with connections in the Netherlands. They helped her take the first steps. One friend bought her plane ticket, another provided contacts for a cleaning job.
What sounded like a promising opportunity quickly turned into something very different.
The work was demanding. It was a large house where Anna worked from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m. She was often not paid. On top of that, she had to cover her own taxi fare to and from work. And because of weight-related biases, her employer did not want to keep her as a cleaner. They worried that if she fell and an ambulance was called, authorities might discover that undocumented people were working in the house.
On top of that, no one helped her find a place to live. Eventually, she found somewhere to stay through her connections. She had to share her room with three other people. Even using the shower was difficult, as the toilet partly blocked the entrance. For this small space, she had to pay more than 400 euros.
With no job prospects and only three nights of accommodation left, she met Justine, one of our counsellors. Justine saw how important it was for her to return and arranged her return to Jakarta within a week.
Despite everything she has been through, Anna is already looking ahead. An entrepreneur at heart, she has a plan for when she returns home. After connecting with Stichting Wereldwijd, she received support in preparing her business. Together, they assembled a box filled with supplies and materials to help her get started. Equipped with barista skills, Anna now intends to sell coffee from a converted scooter in Jakarta.
For Anna, the past months have been stressful and disappointing. What once sounded like a great adventure did not unfold as she had hoped. Now, she is preparing to go home with mixed feelings. She is excited to see her son again, but she is also leaving behind a dream that did not work out. Still, she has not given up. One day, she hopes to return to the Netherlands through regular channels and find work that matches her skills and experience.
When I saw her off at Schiphol yesterday, I did not just see someone returning home. I saw a woman who, despite everything she had been through, was looking forward with confidence to a new chapter in Jakarta.
*To protect her privacy, we have changed her name and left out details that could reveal her identity.
