A 10-year-old girl from Eritrea died in a hospital in Maastricht on Thursday after she fell from a window of the asylum center in Heerlen on Saturday, a spokesperson for the central agency for the reception of asylum seekers COA confirmed to De Gelderlander.
The girl fell from a first floor window, and very unluckily landed on her head. She was rushed to the academic hospital in Maastricht with serious injuries.
The reception centers for asylum seekers in the Netherlands are currently filled to bursting, the central agency for the reception of asylum seekers COA said on Thursday. So far this year, the COA sheltered nearly 27 thousand people, just below the level of 2016 when the Netherlands was dealing with the aftermath of the refugee crisis, NU.nl reports.
A young woman asked the internet to help her find someone special to her heart. In the 90's, Mevan was a 5-year-old refugee living in a shelter in Zwolle. One of the aid workers in the shelter gave her a bicycle. "I just want to know his name. Help?" She asked on Twitter. And with success, according to Weblog Zwolle.
On Wednesday 13 refugee entrepreneurs that completed Refugees Forward's incubator program pitched the plans for their startups in Amsterdam. Entrepreneur Mohammed won both first prize and the public vote with his plan to implement solar irrigation systems in his home country Sudan. Mohammed walks away with one thousand euros to invest in his business and one year of free corporate support, the startup incubator said in a press release.
Refugees in the Netherlands are still struggling to find work. Only a quarter of asylum seekers who came to the Netherlands in 2014 now have a job, according to a new report by social-economic council SER. Business incubator Refugees Forward is trying to help by giving refugees the training they need to launch their own successful businesses.
Last year there were around 30 incidents at Amsterdam student complexes where refugees and students live together, the Amsterdam office of mayor and alderman said in a report to the city council. The city is taking measures to reduce these incidents, Het Parool reports.
Aruba is struggling to shelter thousands of asylum seekers from Venezuela, fleeing their country to escape poverty and political chaos. The island, which forms part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, already received more asylum applications than it can handle, ANP reports.
A large number of EU countries, including the Netherlands, officially recognized opposition leader Juan Guaidó as interim president of Venzuela on Monday. In a letter to parliament, Dutch Minister Stef Blok of Foreign Affairs said that the government decided to recognize Guaidó, because Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro failed to meet an ultimatum set by the European Union, NU.nl reports.
The Netherlands and seven other EU countries will take in refugees who are currently stuck on a ship belonging to rescue organization Sea-Watch, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat of Malta announced in a press conference on Wednesday. The ship has been hovering off the coast of Malta for some time, because it was not allowed to moor anywhere, NU.nl reports.
A Dutch-flagged ship that rescued 32 migrants from a sinking boat near Libya is still looking for a harbor where the migrants may enter and be processed as possible refugees. The Dutch Justice and Security ministry is trying to help find a port for Sea-Watch 3, part of the German organization Sea-Watch.
But Sea-Watch claims that the Netherlands was one of the countries refusing to allow the ship to enter.
There is no question of displacement on the Dutch labor market between older people and young people or between highly educated and low-educated people, and displacement by migrant workers is rare, according to a study by social and cultural planning office SCP and the Dutch bureau for economic policy analysis CPB, NOS reports.
The number of reports of foreign men being forced into prostitution in the Netherlands doubled over the past year. The victims are often asylum seekers and refugees picked up by human traffickers, according to research by Radio Reporter, NPO Radio 1 reports.
A 38-year-old Afghan refugee who was convicted of raping an 18-year-old woman with a slight mental impairment in 2016, received a lower sentence from the court in Amsterdam to prevent him being deported, the Telegraaf reports.
The Public Prosecutor demanded 2 years in prison against Zaman S. for the rape. But the court ruled that the sentence must not have the consequence that he is deported, according to the newspaper.
Minister Wouter Koolmees of Social Affairs is putting an end to the Netherlands' current integration system in which immigrants and refugees have to buy their own civic integration course. Instead municipalities will set up a personal integration plan for all newcomers, which includes language courses, rent and costs for insurance, NOS reports.
More than 40 percent of Syrian refugees in te Netherlands have psychological problems like depression and anxiety, according to a study by social and cultural planning office SCP. Despite these problems, they make little use of mental health care. The SCP spoke to 44 thousand Syrians who were given refugee status in the Netherlands between January 2014 and July 2016, ANP reports.
The job opportunities for refugees can increase if more account is taken of their situation, according to central planning office CPB. For example, the region in which a refugee is placed plays a big role on whether or not the refugee will find a job. The chance that a refugee has a job 10 years after being placed in a favorable region is almost 1.5 times greater than if he or she was placed in an unfavorable region, according to CPB, NU.nl reports.
Mayor Pauline Krikke of The Hague visited two of the three victims who were stabbed on Johanna Westerdijkplein on Saturday. They are doing reasonably well under the circumstances, she said after visiting them in hospital on Monday, RTL Nieuws reports.
"They are doing reasonably well, but it will take a long time before they are both physically and mentally on top of it again", she said. She will visit the third victim as soon as his medical condition permits it.
Refugees with a scientific background may soon find it easier to find work in the Dutch academic world. Science financier NWO in The Hague is launching an experiment in which refugee scientists can get an appointment with a Dutch research group, NOS reports.
This experiment involves 750 thousand euros, enough to appoint eight to 15 people with a master's or doctor's degree for a year. The program, called Refugees in Science, was established in cooperation with KNAW, De Jonge Akademie and and the Dutch foundation for Refugee Students.
Only 11 percent of the 20 thousand asylum seekers who got refugee status in the Netherlands in 2014, had paid work in the summer of last year. A year and a half after obtaining refugee status, on 4 percent had paid work, according to figures Statistics Netherlands released on Tuesday.
Half of the refugees that came to the Netherlands in 2014 are from Syria. 10 percent of this group had paid work last summer - Statistics Netherlands' latest reference date. 6 percent of the 4 thousand Eritrean refugees had work. Most of the refugees in these two groups are still on welfare.
The trial against four brothers accused of exploiting refugees in a laundromat in Zaandam in 2016, started on Thursday. The refugees were paid very little, had to work very long hours, and were sometimes forced to spend the night in the laundromat, Het Parool reports.
The Dutch immigration and naturalization service IND received a document from the Dutch embassy in Rwanda that may prove that a Rwandan refugee who received Dutch nationality in 2006 was involved in genocide in his home country in 1994. State Secretary Mark Harbers of Justice and Security is working on revoking the man's Dutch nationality, AD reports.
The man in question, 62-year-old Jean-Baptiste N., came to the Netherlands as an asylum seeker in 1999. He received Dutch nationality in 2006. He's been living and working in the Eindhoven region for years.
PVV leader Geert Wilders announced that he is pressing discrimination charges against Prime Minister Mark Rutte. According to Wilders, Rutte and his government are significantly discriminating against "ordinary Dutch", he said to broadcaster NOS.
Refugees who received residency to the Netherlands through a general pardon in 2007 are still having problems applying for Dutch citizenship, according to the National Ombudsman and Children's Ombudsman. This process must be simplified, they find, NOS reports.
A 38-year-old Syrian refugee arrested in Brunssum, Limburg last month on suspicion of involvement in terrorist act, was released on Friday. According to the Public Prosecutor, investigation revealed that the man is not involved in terrorism.
