Adults with migrant backgrounds wait months for swimming lessons as drownings rise

Adults with a migration background face waits of up to six months for swimming lessons as providers report full waiting lists, RTL reports. The issue comes as the Netherlands has recorded multiple adult drownings this summer. The Netherlands has many water bodies, including rivers, lakes, and recreation areas.

In Rotterdam, Koninklijke Sportfondsen has about 125 people on its waiting list, mainly those with a migration background, said director Hans Timmerman. “The waiting lists last up to half a year. There are about 125 people on it, mainly people with a migration background,” he said. “Especially in the last two years it has become busier.”

Tessa Laan of Stichting Swimpact, which provides lessons to refugees, asylum seekers and undocumented people in Utrecht and Amsterdam, has a waiting list of 160. Registration runs through the Centraal Orgaan opvang asielzoekers (COA).

Bernard Korte, director of the Nederlands Instituut Veiligheid Zwemlocaties (NIVZ), described recent drownings as “shockingly high.”

The fatalities include a 35-year-old man who drowned on June 27 while swimming with his wife and child at the IJzeren Man recreation area in Vught, Noord-Brabant; a man who drowned on June 26 in the Waal near Tiel; a Ukrainian woman who drowned on June 21 in Lunteren after saving two children; and a 17-year-old Syrian boy who drowned on May 31 in the Maarsseveense Plassen near Utrecht.

CBS figures show 100 drowning deaths in 2025. The previous year, 250 people drowned nationwide, slightly more than the year before. The statistics agency no longer tracks the origin of victims. Many of the recent drowning victims had a migration background, according to Korte, who expects the pattern to continue.

He linked it to a lack of swimming education in that group and the sharp decline in school swimming programs since the 1990s, when many municipalities stopped offering them and made parents responsible.

Rotterdam issues vouchers for discounted swimming lessons for people in financial need. The two-year program ends in December and has driven higher demand, Timmerman said.

In Nijmegen, three Sportfondsen pools have about 100 people waiting, an increase from last year, said director Martijn Koop. Neighborhood sports coaches work to enroll adults who cannot swim, backed by a municipal program that gives residents 150 euros for sports including swimming lessons.

Koop noted that few native Dutch adults without swimming diplomas join the classes. “I don’t know why that is. Maybe it is part of our culture that the dangers of water are underestimated. Or neighborhood sports coaches focus less on that group.”