Het artikel ‘The Wetsuitman’ uit het Noorse Dagbaldet is een van de beste stukken die ik tot nu toe gelezen heb over migratie. De schrijvers beginnen, na de vondst van een wetsuit en een paar stoffelijke overschotten aan een zoektocht naar de identiteit van deze mysterieuze zwemmer. Ze komen uit in Nederland waar ook een wetsuitman was gevonden op Texel. Resercheur Welzenbagh komt aan het woord:
There were not many physical characteristics to go on. The only thing Welzenbagh noticed was that the body had very dark hair.
“I thought he might be from Spain. There are not many other places in Europe where you see that hair colour, in any case, not amongst ethnic Europeans,” he says.
When the wetsuitman was found, four windsurfers were reported missing in England. The main theory in the first days was that one of them had floated ashore. The windsurfers had however already been found. The same went for a French diver who went missing outside Normandy. Still, Dutch media reported that the body found on Texel was a diver from France.
“This was of course wrong, but even at our meetings he was known as the diver. I didn’t like that,” says Welzenbagh.
“We had no way of knowing what kind of water sports he had been doing. If we called him the diver, I was afraid we would overlook clues that could help us. I said 'from now on, we will call him the wetsuitman'.”
De Noren komen uit in 'de nieuwe jungle' een vluchtelingenkamp in Calais waar de mannen uit zijn weggevlucht met het idee naar Engeland te zwemmen.
