asylum

KLM refused too cooperate last year in the deportation of child asylum seekers Lili and Howick. The Dutch airline canceled their tickets one night before they were set to be on a flight to Armenia, according to a report from the Justice and Security Inspectorate, NOS reports.

The night before Lili and Howick's scheduled deportation, the director of KLM called the director general of repatriation and deportation service DT&V. The airline director informed him that KLM would not participate in the children's deportation. 

The Netherlands is still locking child asylum seekers up in detention centers, according to research by UNICEF. Last year the Netherlands held 210 children in detention centers, some of them for up to 82 days. 900 children who applied for asylum in the Netherlands were sent back to their country of origin or another European Union country last year, RTL Nieuws reports.

The Dutch government must do more against child asylum seekers disappearing from asylum centers. Over the past five years, 60 minor Vietnamese asylum seekers disappeared from Dutch asylum centers under dubious circumstances, and nothing seems to be done about it, National Rapporteur on Human Trafficking Herman Bolhaar said to Nieuwsuur.

On Saturday coalition party CDA announced that the party wants to extend the children's pardon, joining the D66 and ChristenUnie who have been calling for this for some time. The VVD is now the only one of the four coalition parties who wants to stick to the agreement made in the Rutte III coalition agreement, which states that the previous government's children's pardon will remain unchanged, the Volkskrant reports.

The Netherlands will grant asylum to 27 White Helmet rescue workers evacuated from Syria, in the midst of an offensive by the Syrian regime, in July. The White Helmets coming to the Netherlands are five families and three individuals, NRC reports.

The Netherlands is considering giving shelter to a "limited number" of Syrian aid group the White Helmets, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice and Security said to RTL Nieuws. "Important conditions for this are identification, registration and (security) screening."

The Netherlands granted asylum to the first Turks who applied for protection after an attempted coup in Turkey last year. At least eight alleged Gulen-supporters who face persecution in Turkey now have asylum in the Netherlands, Wil Eikelboom of the association of asylum lawyers VAjN said to ANP.

Dutch harbors with ferries to England are increasingly faced with Albanians trying to secretly cross to the United Kingdom, according to the Volkskrant. Over the past few months, hundreds of Albanian stowaways were caught in IJmuiden, Hoek van Holland, Europoort and Vlissingen. 

While the number of caught stowaways is comparable to last year - 440 in the first half of this year - the proportion of Albanians among them is increasing steadily, especially in Hoek van Holland and Europoort. In those two ports 92 percent of the caught stowaways were Albanian. 

Discussions between the government and municipalities on shelter and provisions for failed asylum seekers and other undocumented migrants failed. No agreement could be reached, State Secretary Klaas Dijkhoff of Security and Justice announced on Monday, NU.nl reports.

Dutch municipalities are worried that 90 percent of refugees given residency permits in the past years will not be able to find work, according to a survey by Kennisplatform Integratie & Sameleving

In response to the mass sexual assaults in Cologne over New Year's, the PVV plans to hand out "resistance spray" to women so that they can protect themselves from attacks by "Islamic testosterone bombs". The spray contains a dye that will stain an attacker's skin and clothing. It is a legal alternative to banned pepper spray, ANP reports.