Several Dutch municipalities, including Utrecht and Groningen, have expressed growing concern about the rising incidence of crime and security problems committed by a group of unaccompanied Syrian refugee minors, calling on the Ministry of Asylum and Migration to provide urgent support and more effective guidance for these young people.
According to the local website Sikkom, several mayors have formally requested the government to provide additional assistance to child protection agencies, noting that the target group is difficult to guide and lacks psychological and social stability.
The incidents have been particularly concentrated in Groningen, which witnessed four separate incidents between Syrian youths between the ages of 16 and 18 during March and April alone. These incidents involved clashes in the streets and public squares such as Grote Markt and Heerstraat, where police seized firearms and bullet-proof vests from some of them.
The municipality of Groningen decided to impose a regional ban on minors involved in two or more incidents in recent months, a measure the municipality said had "contributed to a significant de-escalation of the situation since April."
Despite the relative success of the security measures, local authorities expressed concern about the inability to exchange information between municipalities due to the privacy law (AVG), which prohibits the sharing of personal data, hindering national coordination to combat the phenomenon.
The municipality of Groningen called on the Ministry of Asylum to increase support for the Youth Protection Agency and the NIDOS association, which cares for refugee minors, with the aim of developing more effective guidance measures that reduce the drift into crime and provide these young people with a sense of stability and belonging.
According to official statistics, Syrian minors constitute the largest proportion of unaccompanied asylum seekers in the Netherlands. In 2023 alone, 1,865 Syrian children were registered as such, representing 48% of the total number of unaccompanied minors.
Data indicates that a large percentage of these minors later submit family reunification applications. The number of applications submitted by August 2023 reached more than 6,000, compared to 3,850 during the same period last year.
Faris Al-Rifai - Zaman Al-Wasl
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