Mauro Manuel, the 18-year-old Angolan asylum seeker who has become a cause célèbre in the Netherlands, made a last emotional appeal to parliament on Monday to be allowed to stay. But MPs on Tuesday voted down two motions which would have granted him a Dutch residence permit.

Mauro has been living in the southern Dutch province of Limburg with a foster family since he was 10 years old, but is now facing deportation because he is no longer underage.

The Dutch parliament is expected to vote next week on a compromise motion which would allow Mauro to stay in the Netherlands until he hears whether or not an application for a temporary four-year student visa has been successful.

Our correspondent in Angola reports on what Mauro can expect if he must return to a country which could hardly be more of a contrast to Holland.

The first thing Mauro might notice in Luanda is Angola’s recent building frenzy. The second thing is the huge gulf between rich and poor: posh clubs, pricey restaurants and spacious villas lie cheek-to-jowl with the capital’s sprawling slums.

Leaving the airport, he will almost certainly get stuck in one of Luanda’s massive traffic jams, from where he can watch hundreds of people selling every imaginable product on the streets, and others simply doing nothing.

He will smell the dirt, but also feel the hot, bright sunshine and fresh sea breeze that make Luanda’s climate so immensely agreeable.

Life expectancy: 48
Post-civil war (1975-2002) Angola is a country of extremes. It is the world’s fastest growing economy of the past decade, Africa’s second largest oil producer and sub-Saharan Africa’s third largest economy.

While a tiny political and economic elite are wealthy beyond most people’s dreams, two thirds of the population lives on less than two dollars a day. Angola’s average life expectancy is 48. The current official unemployment rate in Luanda is 27 percent and the city is the most expensive in the world.

Sky-high rents
A local representative of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) will be waiting for Mauro at Luanda international airport, spokesperson Mariam Lenshoek told Radio Netherlands Worldwide. The IOM has just over 2,500 euros budgeted for Mauro’s re-integration.

Dutch NGO Mediation Agency for Return (Maatwerk bij Terugkeer) also offers people like Mauro general and financial assistance of up to 1,750 euros.

But Angola’s extreme prices and Mauro’s lack of a social network mean this financial support could be exhausted in the blink of an eye. “I live in a 40 square metre studio with my three kids, for which I pay 1,500 dollars a month,” Angolan HR Manager Umberto told Radio Netherlands. “Mind you: I’m lucky. It’s a good price, because it belongs to my family.”

On the free market, people pay that amount or more for a 20 square metre room in a shared house without kitchen or bathroom. Even the poorest pay at least 250 dollars in rent for a little house in one of Luanda’s numerous slums.

Rude awakening
The Dutch Embassy in Angola once hired a voluntary returnee as a chauffeur, an insider told Radio Netherlands Worldwide. He stayed for about five months. The cost of living in Angola was a rude awakening. He decided to return to Holland.

But Joris Van Wijk of Amsterdam’s Vrije Universiteit warns that it could be better for Mauro to leave voluntarily. If he is ordered to go and refuses, he will be deported and handed over to the immigration authorities in Angola:

“With a forced return, all forms of assistance come to an end in principle. The Angolan government can then even deny him his Angola passport.”

Career opportunities
“As a personnel manager at a Dutch company, I wouldn’t hire him if he hasn’t studied,” Umberto admitted. He himself lived in the Netherlands from age 26 to 28 and returned to Angola of his own free will. “What would he do? Be a security guard? He can study in Angola, but that will cost him 300 dollars a month, and the level of Angolan universities is not comparable to those in Holland.”

Among Angolan and international companies operating in the country there is a huge demand for well-educated Angolan employees who speak foreign languages. For people like Umberto the sky is the limit. The same could be true for Mauro if the Dutch parliament decides he can stay and pursue higher education in the Netherlands.