The Dutch Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND) is moving to deport minor asylum seekers more quickly if they have committed crimes, rather than treating them as juveniles.
This law will come into effect within two weeks, and the IND can refuse or revoke permits on the basis of these rules.
At present, minors can only lose their refugee status or have their asylum application rejected if they are convicted under adult law and sentenced to at least six months in prison.
The Dutch Minister for Asylum and Migration, Marjolein Faber, was quoted by nos as saying that the IND wants to take into account every conviction for a crime against public order when revoking or refusing a permit.
Crimes against public order include, for example, incitement to hatred, piracy, participation in a terrorist organization, and general violence.
Faber announced the change in December, but today linked it to the Helmond gang rape case.
On 16 December 2023, a homeless woman in Helmond was raped by a group of teenagers. Underage asylum seekers were involved. Four of the suspects were sentenced on Monday to up to fifteen months in a juvenile detention centre, three of which were conditional. The fifth suspect was convicted of assaulting the woman.
According to Faber, there is no place for such people in the Netherlands. "Especially after the incident in Helmond, I am completely fed up with the fact that we cannot revoke an asylum permit in such cases," she said in a statement.
*Syrian minors
According to the Dutch website ind, unaccompanied Syrian minor asylum seekers constitute the largest group in the country, and in recent years almost half of the unaccompanied minors have been of Syrian origin.
As of 2023, there were 1,865 (48%) Syrian children. The second largest nationality is Eritrean (19%), followed by Somali (10%), Iraqi (6%), and Yemeni (3%).
Faris Al-Rifai - Zaman Al-Wasl
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