Kolonie 7

Once upon a time, almost 200 years ago, on land then belonging to the Netherlands, there was a place where the poorest of the poor were locked up and put to forced labor. This place, located in Merksplas, a municipality in the province of Antwerp, was called “Kolonie 7” and billed as an “agricultural colony for recalcitrant vagrants”. From dusty maps to the occupied land that has since become Belgian, stories whisper. They tell a thousand buried stories of a past that will not go away. For today, although the vagabonds are no longer there, other undesirables from further afield occupy the place…