Police in the Netherlands found 14 foreign people hidden inside the cargo hold of a truck on Saturday. The people found were mostly adult men, and at least one boy, from the Palestinian territories, Syria and Yemen.
Ten of the people taken from the truck were found in a different truck at the same location on May 11, police said. They were given a two-year ban on entering Europe when they were sent out of the Netherlands.
The Red Cross team in Yemen and Dutch TV maker Floortje Dessing lived through a harrowing night filled with bombardments in the Yemen capital of Sana'a. "The bombardments go on and on. It's a massive noise. You can also hear people screaming outside", Red Cross spokesperson Merlijn Stoffels said to NOS.
The team is currently waiting for the route from the Red Cross bomb shelter to the airport to be safe, Stoffels said. "We're stuck here, we can do nothing but wait." Red Cross employees elsewhere in Sana'a are investigating the route.
Departing Foreign Affairs Minister Bert Koenders called on the European Union to pay better attention to which arms supplies they support. According to him, plenty of money is raised to combat famine in Yemen, but Britain and France for example still provide weapons to Saudi Arabia, which is playing an important role in the civil war raging in Yemen, he said to BNR.
"I think that is a very bad thing", Koenders said to BNR. "We have a European arms export policy. Then you should also look at human rights issues and international humanitarian law, at the stability in a region."
Six of the ten large Dutch insurers still invest in companies that supply arms and weapons systems to Saudi Arabia, according to peace organization Pax in its Fair Insurance Guide. According to the organization, by investing in these companies, the Dutch insurers are violating human rights in Yemen, NOS reports.
The government is making 58.5 million euros available to help victims of conflict in Syria, Iraq and Yemen, a spokesperson for Minister Lilianne Ploumen of Development Cooperation confirmed to the Volkskrant on Friday. According to the Minister, crisis in the Middle East region has reached unprecedented levels.
Rotterdam Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb says he has more authority to make bold statements compelling extremist Muslims to get out of the country than do his European colleagues. The Moroccan-born Dutch Mayor said this in an interview with CNN, after speaking in Washington, D.C., about the role of local governments in battling radicalization and extremism.
The Dutch embassy in Sana'a in Yemen has been temporarily closed due to political tensions in the country. The embassy's staff has already left the country.
Dutch journalist Judith Spiegel who was kidnapped in Yemen last year doubts reports that the men who took her freedom have been killed.
The Dutch couple that was kidnapped in Yemen in June has been released. NOS, NRC Handelsblad and Elsevier journalist Judith Spiegel and her husband Boudewijn Berendsen are currently at the Dutch embassy in the Yemeni capital Sana’a, and they are expected to arrive in the Netherlands on Wednesday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has reported.
An Amsterdam local from Moroccan descent was killed in a fight between Shiite and Sunni Muslims in the Yemeni city Damaj, confirmed sources to the NOS.
Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans has ordered the embassy staff based in Sana'a, Yemen to leave the country.
In a video posted online more than two weeks ago, kidnapped Dutch journalist Judith Spiegel and husband Boudewijn Berendsen appealed to the public for their release.
Kidnapped victims Dutch journalist Judith Spiegel and her partner, Boudewijn Berendsen, have asked their government and the entire country to assist and free from their ordeal.
Yemen’s security officials say that a Dutch couple have disappeared in Sana’a, the capital city of Yemen. They have been missing for three days.
