How a podcast is giving Amsterdam’s ‘ghost citizens’ a voice

Mohamed Bah, at City Rights Radio in Amsterdam, wants to help people reclaim some of who they were before their lives became dominated by a lack of documents. Photograph: Judith Jockel/The Guardian

It started, perhaps fittingly for a podcast based in Amsterdam, with a story about a bicycle.

Mohamed Bah was on the train, nervously eyeing the bicycle he had tucked into a corner of the wagon. His heart pounded as he glanced around him, searching for any sign of a ticket inspector or plainclothes officer who might fine him – or throw him in jail – for failing to pay the small fee to bring his bicycle on board.