Syrian man arrested at Schiphol accused of smuggling 6-year-old boy
Authorities at Schiphol Airport detained a Syrian man on Saturday on allegations of people smuggling after he was caught with a child who was not traveling with his own passport. The 37-year-old was stopped with two children during the border check following a flight from Tbilisi, Georgia, to the Netherlands.
The suspect was joined by two boys, aged 6 and 11, according to the Marechaussee, the branch of the military responsible for passport control services at Schiphol. "They were in possession of German refugee passports with residence permits. The team had doubts about the youngest child's documents," the Marechaussee stated.
The officers carrying out the passport control did not believe that the photograph in the document showed the child standing in front of them. An investigation determined that the young boy was not related to the adult. The boy was taken into protective custody, and handed over to Nidos, an organization set up to take guardianship of unaccompanied minors in the Netherlands.
The 11-year-old was determined to be the man's son. "The suspect put his own child in a vulnerable position by using him to smuggle another child," the Marechaussee alleged.
The case remains under investigation by the Marechaussee and the Noord-Holland branch of the Public Prosecution Service. The team involved in the investigation specializes in both people smuggling and human trafficking cases.
