Attention, erreur : 1600 et non 16’000 (v. plus bas !)
16,000 children missing from Dutch asylum shelters : report
Over 16 thousand children disappeared from asylum centers in the Netherlands over the past 4.5 years, NRC reports based on figures from the central agency for the reception of asylum seekers #COA and #Nidos, the organization that has custody of all unaccompanied foreign minors in the Netherlands. These kids left the asylum centers and their current whereabouts are unknown, the newspaper writes.
According to the two organizations, some of the missing children left to join family or friends in Germany, Belgium or France. But there are also signals that missing child asylum seekers end up in situations where they are exploited. Nidos and the COA told NRC that it is “always worrying” when a child disappears from a shelter. “Every child is one too many”, Nidos director Tim Verstegen said to the newspaper.
The largest group of missing child asylum seekers come from Morocco, 325, followed by 190 children from Algeria, 167 from Afghanistan, and 114 each from Syria and Eritrea. The first three countries are considered “safe”, which means that asylum seekers from there stand little chance of getting refugee status in the Netherlands. But asylum seekers from Syria and Eritrea are almost always given a residency permit.
The group of children who disappear from the asylum process is likely even larger, according to NRC. The foreigners police in Rotterdam regularly find foreign minors, who are put on a taxi and sent to the reception center in Ter Apel to start their asylum procedure. But not all children actually report to the reception center, a police officer said to the newspaper. They are dropped off at the center’s door, but don’t go inside or leave again a few hours later, before being assigned a guardian.
Earlier this year the National Rapporteur on Human Trafficking Herman Bolhaar called on the government to do more to find and protect children who disappear from asylum centers: ▻https://nltimes.nl/2019/04/01/dutch-govt-must-protect-disappearing-child-asylum-seekers-national-rapporteu.
▻https://nltimes.nl/2019/06/03/16000-children-missing-dutch-asylum-shelters-report
#disparitions #mineurs #MNA #asile #migrations #réfugiés #mineurs_non_accompagnés #Pays-Bas #statistiques #chiffres #mineurs #enfants #enfance