‘The PROBAS team is made up of seven people and falls under the Host Country Division,’ says Monique. ‘The team is responsible for implementation. Four staff members are the points of contact for the countries and international organisations assigned to them. Two senior staff members are responsible for matters such as IT, responsible for applying the four-eyes principle in the ePortal and finding solutions to more difficult issues. As coordinator, final responsibility rests with me. I handle any questions that colleagues can’t answer. Then I’ll either try to find the answer myself or liaise between policy and implementation.’ 

Diplomatic ID cards in the 1990s
Monique joined the Protocol and Host Country Affairs Department (DPG) in January 2017 as a staff member. After a time, she advanced to a senior role in charge of IT for PROBAS, before becoming coordinator a year and a half ago. Monique held various other roles at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (BZ) before 2017. ‘I started at the Protocol Department (now DPG) as secretary at the exemptions and immunities division, which is now called the Host Country Division. Back then, I made the ID cards for privileged persons by hand – there were never more than about five a day.’

Monique explains how this was done. ‘A privileged person would send in their passport photo, which I glued onto a preprinted yellow card. I hand wrote the individual’s name on the card. Then it was stamped and the photo was attached with a grommet. That’s how we made diplomatic ID cards in those days. There weren’t a lot of international organisations in the Netherlands at that time. That wasn’t until later.’

Helping people is satisfying
After her time at the Protocol Department, Monique was posted to Bangladesh – her only foreign posting as a BZ civil servant so far. Monique’s father also worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. ‘I was born in France and then lived in Ethiopia, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), Austria and Indonesia. It was a career I also envisioned for myself,’ she recalls. To equip herself for an international career, Monique trained as an international management assistant. At a certain point she began working at the Ministry’s Legalisation Desk. It was work that she enjoyed, and she ended up staying in the Netherlands.

We asked Monique to describe her average working day as PROBAS coordinator. ‘I don’t really have an average day,’ she laughs. ‘I never know what the day will bring. The most satisfying part of my job is being able to help people. Unfortunately, that’s not always possible.’

Exception to the rule
Monique sometimes encounters challenges in her work. ‘When it comes to PROBAS, we follow the procedures drawn up by policymakers. We put their plans into practice. Those procedures are based on years of experience and much thought has gone into them. But sometimes people want too much,’ Monique says. ‘For instance, they want their whole family to accompany them to the Netherlands. Or they want to stay on longer, even though they’ve been deregistered. Some people want us to make an exception for them, but that’s hardly ever possible.’ The rules are laid down in law and deviating from them is only possible in the most exceptional circumstances. 

‘I enjoy helping people,’ says Monique. She often thinks back to her time at the Legalisation Desk, when she worked with documents that have a real bearing on life events, such as getting married. ‘The decisions you make at the Legalisation Desk can have a life-changing impact for people.’
Besides her work, Monique is also deeply interested in nutrition and an active lifestyle. ‘I’ve taken many courses on health and vitality. I like to advise people on good nutrition, what to eat and what to avoid, to have an active lifestyle and above all, to enjoy life!’ she concludes.