The story of Janos Szalai

Three weeks a year Janos Szalai has as a wonderful life. Back in Hungary he sleeps with his girlfriend in a warm bed, he plays with his grandchild in the park and he drinks beers with his friends in the village pub. The rest of the year he wanders around in Amsterdam and five nights a week he sorts packages at GLS in the western docklands of Amsterdam. At GLS, the distribution company formerly called Van Gent & Loos, Szalai earns 7.50 Euros per hour. Excluding tax though. So he scrapes together € 250 per week, € 1,000 per month. Below the minimum wage in the Netherlands, but three times the average income in Hungary. Part of the money he earns he sends back home and he tells his family he lives in a nice apartment, ashamed for his existence as a homeless person. He says: “If my girlfriend finds out I live in a tent I have to come home immediately” This story was been finished in 2011. Janos passed away in 2015 from the results of a cardiac arrest