Journalist
I am a freelance journalist based in Amsterdam, who has spent almost a decade covering the Middle East. I currently cover Dutch politics for various international outlets, including Euronews and France 24.
My book "Four Seasons in Damascus' (only in Dutch for now) chronicles the year I worked in Damascus, Syria for the United Nations. In 2018, I became communications officer for UNRWA, the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees. I lived and worked in Syria, and saw first hand the devastation of a country ravaged by too many years of war.
Before that I spent two years in Paris at France 24 English. I was part of a busy newsroom and reported on terrorist attacks in France, the migration crisis and developments in the Middle East. I also did a stint as a news presenter in charge of the business bulletin and covered the 2017 Dutch elections.
After my degrees in Arabic and Political Science I moved to Beirut in 2011. I spent four years as a freelance Middle East correspondent for various Dutch media and the Independent. I mostly covered the war in Syria and refugees. Here you can read about how children are especially affected by the war, and this shows how tensions started to grow between the Lebanese and the huge number of refugees that had settled in the country. And here I take a look at how the war affected one of Syria's best exports: soap operas.
I also wrote articles the Economist, Foreign Policy, the Evening Standard and many others. For the Economist I wrote about how humour is the best way to deal with jihadists. And this is a story I wrote for Foreign Policy about how the Lebanese are so fed up with their leaders that they hope a TV contest will provide help.
When I moved back to Europe in the summer of 2015, many Syrians did too, and so I followed them, all the way from Greece to Calais, in a multipart series you can watch here. So many Syrians wanting to flee to Europe created a bustling smuggling industry, here I take you to the Turkish city that has become a people smuggling hub.
Fluent in English, Dutch, German and French I am available for written pieces, production work and lectures.