Nomansland
Rotterdam
Netherlands, 2024

The cruise ship Silja Europa, moored in Rotterdam’s Merwehaven, has served as a shelter for asylum status holders since July 2023. What began as a temporary, supposedly pragmatic solution to the housing shortage has since become a stark symbol of political unwillingness and institutional failure.

A vessel originally designed to accommodate a maximum of 1,500 passengers now holds nearly 2,000 people, including hundreds of children. They live in cramped, windowless cabins barely six square meters in size. Overcrowding, lack of privacy, and minimal access to fresh air or outdoor space — these are not exceptions, they are policy. What was introduced as an emergency stopgap has turned into a system where people are confined for months on a floating no man’s land, out of sight, and out of responsibility.