Mother of two held at Schiphol suspected of ISIS involvement
A 31-year-old woman from Zevenaar was arrested last Sunday at Schiphol Airport immediately after her arrival from Syria. She was stopped by the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee upon landing in the Netherlands while traveling with her two young children. The Public Prosecution Service (OM) says she is suspected of involvement with the terrorist group Islamic State (IS).
At 19 or 20 years old, the woman departed for the caliphate in the fall of 2014, traveling through Turkey to Syria to join IS. While in Syria, she reportedly married a fighter from the terrorist group. The two children she returned with, both under 10, were born in the conflict area.
The woman left Syria at the end of last year. In November 2025, she was detained in Turkey and spent several months in immigration custody before being returned to the Netherlands this week.
Following her arrest, she was transferred to the National Investigation and Intervention Unit (LO), working with the National Public Prosecutor’s Office on the case. At a hearing on Wednesday, the examining magistrate ordered her to remain in pretrial detention for 14 days.
Following the landing and their mother’s arrest, the children were taken into the care of the Child Protection Board. They are now at a secure, undisclosed location while authorities assess their safety and consider whether they can be placed with family.
Her case is part of a wider pattern of Dutch nationals being arrested upon returning from Syria. Besides individual arrests, there have been past group repatriations of women and children from Syrian camps, with many facing charges or detention afterward.
In the Netherlands, individuals traveling to IS-held territories are typically closely tracked by security services and are often taken into custody immediately upon returning for investigation.
