Dutch aid workers from foundation Bootvluchteling are in hiding after they were attacked on the Greek island of Lesbos. "During an evacuation of colleagues in the [refugee] camp, we were driven into a kind of trap. We were attacked with steel tubes and our cars were attacked," one aid worker said to NOS.
"It is currently not safe as an aid worker on Lesbos", the aid worker, who asked to remain anonymous for their own safety, said to the broadcaster.
Dutch journalists and aid workers will soon need permission from the Ministry of Justice and Security to work in areas controlled by terrorists. A majority in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament, on Tuesday approved a legislative amendment by Justice Minister Ferdinand Grapperhaus to this effect, NOS reports.
The number of people suspected of violence against people with a public duty, like police officers, firefighters and paramedics, increased by nearly 20 percent last year. In 2017 a total of 8,964 people were suspected of verbally or physically attacking an emergency worker, compared to 7,502 the year before, NOS reports.
Aid workers for charity organization Oxfam had sex parties with possibly underage prostitutes in the aftermath of the disastrous earthquake in Haiti, and the charity then covered it up, British newspaper The Times reported on Friday. "It came as a shock", a spokesperson of the Dutch branch of the charity, Oxfam Novib, said to the Telegraaf. "Everyone is a bit dazed here."
Anja de Beer, the Dutch aid worker who was released on Thursday after spending 81 days as a hostage in Afghanistan, plans to go back to Afghanistan to return to her work as soon as she can manage it. Her abduction did not scare her away. "You known that this work entails risks".
