Dutch launch English website for Ukrainian refugees in NL

DutchNews, March 18, 2022 

A protest banner in Amsterdam. Photo: DutchNews.nl

Dutch refugee organisation Vluchtelingenwerk Nederland and the Red Cross have launched an English-language website gathering together information for Ukrainian nationals who have fled the war and come to the Netherlands. 

Refugeehelp.nl is aimed at both Ukrainians and people who want to help the relief effort and includes information about housing, schools and work as well as what to do with pets.

Thousands open their homes to Ukrainian refugees 

Some 8,000 Ukrainian nationals have arrived in the Netherlands so far but the government expects at least 50,000 people, mainly women and children, to come. 

The government is currently deciding on what residence status Ukrainians should be given, which will determine their options to work. This should be finalised by April 1. 

In the meantime, preparations are being made to ensure that an estimated 15,000 to 25,000 children can go to school, and start learning Dutch. In particular, officials are looking at involving teachers from the Ukrainian community itself, immigration minister Eric van de Burg said. 

Ukrainian nationals are free to travel within the EU for a maximum of 90 days a year without a visa but that has been extended in view of the war. 

EU grants residence rights to Ukrainians fleeing conflict

Half the children in final refugee amnesty review can stay

DutchNews, February 12, 2020 

Children in the Ter Apel refuguee centre. Photo: Peter de Ruiter/ UNHCR Brussel

Just over half the refugee children hoping to be given residency rights in the Netherlands in a final review of the child refugee amnesty have won the right to stay. 

In total, 569 out of 1,100 children have been given residency permits, along with 502 adult family members, junior justice minister Ankie Broekers-Knol told MPs on Wednesday. 

The cases of 263 children were given an automatic review, after MPs agreed to soften the criteria in a final attempt to end the problems around the amnesty early last year. 

Of those 263 cases, 235 were granted residency. In addition, a further 837 children applied for the amnesty who were not part of the automatic review. Most of those cases were rejected, but 334 children were given a residency permit, Broekers-Knol said. 

Most of the children who did not qualify had either not lived in the Netherlands for five years, had not applied before they turned 18 or did not have a refugee request pending, the minister said. 

Scrapped 

Wednesday’s announcement means the amnesty (known as a pardon in Dutch), has now been scrapped, as agreed by the coalition parties last year. Officials hope asylum procedures have now been made faster so that children do not have time to become ‘rooted in the Netherlands’. 

The Netherlands has been criticised by both human rights groups and psychiatrists for deporting children, many of whom were born here, back to countries where they did not speak the language and which they had never visited. 

The issue came to a head in January last year and threatened to cause a serious rift in the cabinet after the Christian Democrats did a u-turn and said they supported giving the children the right to stay after all. 

IND officials said at the time the review was launched they expected most of the children and their family members will now be allowed to stay, taking the total to around 1,300 people.

Kimia Alizadeh: Iran's top female athlete defects

DW, 12 January 2020

Iran's only female Olympic medallist, Kimia Alizadeh, has said she has left the country permanently following accusations of mistreatment and sexism against officials. The 21-year-old is reportedly in the Netherlands.

Kimia Alizadeh | 2016 Rio Olympics - Taekwondo (Reuters/I. Kato)

Amid rising unrest in Iran following the accidental shooting down of a Ukrainian plane and simmering tensions with the USA, Iran's only female Olympic medallist, Taekwondo athlete Kimia Alizadeh, has announced that she has defected.

In an Instagram post on Sunday, the 21-year-old said she didn't want to be a part of "hypocrisy, lies, injustice and flattery" as "one of the millions of oppressed women in Iran".

"I wore whatever they told me and repeated whatever they ordered. Every sentence they ordered I repeated. None of us matter for them, we are just tools," she added.

Alizadeh, who made history when she won bronze in Taekwondo at the Rio Olympics as an 18-year-old, is believed to be training in the Netherlands, according to Iran's ISNA news agency.

She has claimed in the past that the Islamic Republic has used her as a propaganda tool and accused Iranian officials of sexism and mistreatment.

The ISNA agency reported that Alizadeh is hoping to still compete at the Tokyo Olympics later this year, but not under the Iranian flag.

Iranian students demonstrated following a tribute for victims of
Wednesday's plane crash (AFP Photo/Atta KENARE)

Related Article:

Iran agrees de-escalation 'only solution' to solve crisis with US

European immigration is main driver behind Dutch population growth

DutchNews, January 3, 2020 

Photo: Depositphotos.com

The population of the Netherlands grew by 132,000 to 17.4 million in 2019, according to initial estimates by national statistics agency CBS. 

The increase is some 30,000 up on previous years and due almost entirely to immigration, the CBS said. There were also 18,000 more births than deaths. 

Almost half the new immigrants came from Europe, of whom 85% came from another EU country. A further 18% came from Asia, largely India and China, the CBS said. 

Refugees granted residency permits accounted for just 6% of the total new arrivals, or 16,000 people. 

Some 16,000 people also moved to the Netherlands from America, up 4,000 on 2018 and 10,000 on 2016.

Two Dutch documentaries win International Emmy awards

DutchNews, November 26, 2019

Roozbeh Kaboly, left, Ahmad Joudeh, Iris Lammertsma and Oscar van Der
Kroon pose with their award. Photo: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

Two Dutch documentaries have won prizes at this year’s International Emmy Awards, considered to be the most important international television awards there are. 

Dance or Die, a documentary by NOS television reporter Roozbeh Kaboly about a young Syrian dancer, took the award for best arts programming. 

The documentary follows 27-year-old Ahmad Joudeh, who, unable to fulfill his dream to dance in his war-torn home country, fled to the Netherlands. 

The second Dutch winner was Bellingcat – Truth in a Post Truth World, which took the documentary award. The VPRO production looked at how Bellingcat researchers go about their work.

The International Emmy for Documentary goes to "Bellingcat – Truth In A Post-Truth World" produced by @Submarinebv Amsterdam / @vpro! #Netherlands #iemmyWIN #iemmys pic.twitter.com/PEcLaomAtA

— Intl Emmy Awards (@iemmys) 26 november 2019

Not bringing home jihadi kids ‘is more risky’, counter terror agency says

DutchNews, November 1, 2019

Photo: Depositphotos.com

Bringing back IS wives and children from Syria will be better for national security, the counter terrorism agency NCTV said in a confidential memo in 2018, the Volkskrant reported on Friday afternoon. 

The memo was made public by lawyers for 23 jihadi brides and 55 children during a court hearing aimed at getting the Netherlands to soften its hard-line approach to repatriation. 

‘Not bringing back these children carries more security risks with in,’  the NCTV said. The children are still young and have not been indoctrinated and if they are not brought back, they could pose a risk in the future. 

They may become embittered and that would make them easy prey for recruiters for jihad, who have become embedded in the close jihadi network in the prison camps, the memo, which has been heavily redacted, said. 

The cabinet has repeatedly argued it is not safe send officials to the prison camps to bring back children. However, the Volkskrant reported earlier that the Dutch refusal to consider the issue is causing immense frustration among officials tasked with counter-terrorism work. 
‘These children are only getting older and they will return to the Netherlands however they can,’ one told the paper. ‘Now they are young, we can properly manage their return.’

Army unions call for rethink on deporting Afghan interpreter

DutchNews, October 18, 2019

Army unions and aid groups have joined forces to urge the Netherlands not to deport an Afghan man who worked as a translator for the military for 13 years. 

They have taken out a page-sized advert in the Telegraaf calling for a rethink, after the man’s request for a residency permit was rejected. 

‘The Taliban and IS see interpreters and others who worked for the international military in Afghanistan as spies and traitors,’ the advert states. ‘They are threatened and forced to go into hiding.’ 

Defence minister Ank Bijleveld said this summer that interpreters who feel threatened are welcome in the Netherlands. 

The immigration service IND which assesses asylum claims has not yet commented. 

Around 120 locals worked for the Dutch as interpreters in Uruzgan between 2006 and 2010.

Double Dutch: Sifan Hassan makes it two golds with stunning 1,500 metres win

DutchNews, October 6, 2019

Sifan Hassan celebrates her win. Photo: AP Photo/Martin Meissner via HH 

Sifan Hassan became the first woman in athletics history to win gold medals in both the 10,000 metres and the 1,500 metres at the World Athletics championships in Qatar on Saturday evening. 

Hassan, who won the 10,000 metres title a week ago stormed through the final lap of the 1,500 metres to win the title in what commentators said was an ‘extraordinary’ race. 

🇳🇱@SifanHassan completes unprecedented 1500m / 10,000m #WorldAthleticsChamps double and obliterates championship record in 3:51.95 in a middle-distance final for the ages.

📰: https://t.co/Got12CIHbC pic.twitter.com/Uw31zyoXGZ

— IAAF (@iaaforg) 5 oktober 2019

Her time of 3min 51.95sec was a championship record and the sixth fastest time ever recorded. 

But a cloud hung over the victory following the suspension of her coach Alberto Salazar for doping offences earlier in the week. 

Hassan told reporters after the game she was innocent of any wrongdoing. ‘It has been a hard week for me,’ she told the Guardian. ‘I was so angry. I couldn’t talk to anyone. I ran all out. I wanted to show that hard work can beat everything.’ 

Hassan, who had several victories to her name before joining Salazar in 2016, said what makes her so angry is that she has been clean all her life. ‘I have been such a good athlete since 2014. Now people start talking all this bullshit,’ she said before apologising for her language. 

Hassan came to the Netherlands as a refugee at the age of 15 in 2008 and began running competitively while training to be a nurse.

Eritrean man picked up in North Sea on home-made raft

DutchNews, June 3, 2019

Photo: Ko van Leeuwen

The Dutch sea rescue services on Sunday rescued an Eritrean man who was trying to cross the North Sea to England on a home-made raft. 

The KNRM said it picked up the man on Sunday morning near IJmuiden, the port to the west of Amsterdam, close to a busy shipping route. 

The triangular raft had been made out of tree trncks and plastic plant pots filled with plastic bottles and polystyrene for buoyancy and tied together with rope. It had a plastic sail, and carried a jerrycan of water and a solar panel to power a mobile phone. 

According to the Noordhollands Dagblad, the man wanted to take advantage of the ebb tide to reach the wider sea and was completely reliant on wind and the tides for the 190 kilometre crossing. 

The man, said to be 26 years old, is being questioned by border police. 

‘I have never seen anything like this and I hope it is the last time I do,’ KNRM captain Walter Schol said. ‘The raft is not at all seaworthy and he was very lucky with the weather, otherwise this could have ended very differently.’

Asylum minister Mark Harbers resigns over refugee crime report

DutchNews, May 21, 2019

VVD MP Klaas Dijkhoff consoles Mark Harbers after his resignation.
Photo: Peter Hilz / HH 

Asylum minister Mark Harbers has resigned during a debate with MPs about a report in which figures about the number of refugees suspected of violent crimes were ‘hidden’. 

Harbers told MPs that he felt responsible for the report, in which figures about how many refugees were suspected of rape and murder were not explicitly stated. ‘I am not only responsible in terms of the law, but I feel responsible,’ Harbers said. 

The figures, which were published last week, included suspicions of rape (4) and murder (31) under the heading ‘other’. Harbers was then accused of attempting to hide the figures. 

During Tuesday evening’s debate Harbers said that the ministry had been warned not to come up with a top 10 crimes for which asylum seekers were suspects because that meant serious crime would be hidden. However, civil servants had not taken that advice, Harbers said. 

Asked why the ministry again had failed to report the true extent of the potential involvement of asylum seekers in crime, Harbers said civil servants were worried that the figures would lead to confusion. 

Fake refugees 

Last week’s report showed ‘fake’ asylum seekers who come from so-called safe countries, namely Morocco and Algeria, were responsible for almost half the 4,600 incidents requiring police intervention. 

While most cases involved shoplifting or pickpocketing, police also registered cases of physical abuse, threatening behaviour and a further 1,000 incidents listed as ‘other’. 

The Telegraaf reported on Thursday morning this total included 79 potential sex crimes, including 47 cases of sexual assault, five allegations of child abuse and four alleged rapes plus a string of other violent offences.

Related Article:

Murder, rape? MPs want answers on asylum seeker crime figures

Murder, rape? MPs want answers on asylum seeker crime figures

DutchNews, May 16, 2019

Photo: Depositphotos.com 

MPs from across the political spectrum have called on junior justice minister Mark Harbers to explain why police figures on call-outs involving asylum seekers did not specify there had been 31 allegations of murder and 79 suspected sex offences. 

The figures were published earlier this week and showed ‘fake’ asylum seekers who come from so-called safe countries, namely Morocco and Algeria, were responsible for almost half the 4,600 incidents requiring police intervention. 

While most cases involved shoplifting or pickpocketing, police also registered cases of physical abuse, threatening behaviour and a further 1,000 incidents listed as ‘other’. 

The Telegraaf reported on Thursday morning this total included 79 potential sex crimes, including 47 cases of sexual assault, five allegations of child abuse and four alleged rapes plus a string of other violent offences. 

A police spokesman told the Telegraaf on Thursday afternoon that the ministry had had the full figures for ‘several weeks’. The justice ministry said earlier that it had been provided with incomplete figures and Harbers has pledged to come up with a statement later on Thursday. 

Not all the cases ended up in court and it is unclear from the reporting so far how many of the serious incidents were actually confirmed by officials and how many actually involved asylum seekers. 

The Telegraaf said 1,710 cases made it to court, but there is no breakdown for what crimes or what the conviction rate was. 

Christian Democrat MP Madeleine van Toorenburg said the minister should come clean as soon as possible. A pattern is emerging of hiding important information, she said, referring to an earlier report by a government scientific organisation which, she said, also included ‘a rose-tinted picture of the problems and the crime’. 

She has called on the minister to come up with the full figures by next week. 

In total 45 asylum seekers were told to leave the country because of criminal activities last year but this figure only applies to asylum seekers whose country of origin would entitle them to seek asylum, the report said.

Dutch firms agree to create 3,500 jobs for refugees in two years

DutchNews, April 9, 2019

Photo: Depositphotos.com

Fifteen large Dutch employers, including Shell, ING, Philips and construction company Dura Vermeer have agreed to create 3,500 permanent jobs for refugees in the Netherlands and abroad over the next two years, the Financieele Dagblad said on Tuesday. 

In addition, the firms are starting a string of initiatives to help a further 10,000 refugees improve their prospects to get a job, start their own companies and improve living conditions in refugee camps, the paper said. 

‘This is the moral agenda of big business, and is separate from politics,’ former Unilever chief executive Paul Polman said. Polman is one of the driving forces behind the Dutch Business Summit on Refugees, the paper said. 

Every day 44,000 more people join the global flow of refugees, Polman said. ‘You and I could have been born in Syria. Don’t forget that,’ he said in the interview. ‘I am here because the Dutch government paid for my education.’ 

The Dutch Summit on Refugees was organised by Tent Partnership for Refugees, an initiative launched by Hamadi Ulukaya, chief executive of the biggest producer of Greek yoghurt in the US and the son of a Kurdish shepherd. Some 30% of his employees are refugees. 

Unemployment

Figures from national statistics office CBS show that just one in 10 asylum seekers finds a job within 18 months of being given official refugee status. 

Rabobank says it will take on 60 people. ‘It is only a beginning,’ chairman Wiebe Draijer told the paper. ‘Let us see how quickly things happen. My wish for the future is that we are a country where refugees are welcome and can be successful.’ 

Among the other initatives: ING has agreed to put up €10m in loans to help Syrian refugees in Turkey start their own companies while Philips says it will employ 100 refugees in the Netherlands and Germany over the next five years. 

ABN Amro said it would take on over 80 refugees by 2021 while cleaning group Asito says it has jobs for 50.

Face of child refugee campaign wins right to remain in the Netherlands

DutchNews, April 3, 2019 

Nemr at the presentation of a petition calling for a change in the law.
Photo: Peter Hilz / HH

The nine-year-old Iraqi boy who became the face of a campaign to change the child refugee amnesty rules has been give the right to remain in the Netherlands. 

Nemr was the central figure in a documentary made by tv presentor Tim Hofman about the impact of pending deportation on children. The issue was seen partly through the eyes of the young boy who was born in the Netherlands but whose parents come from Iraq. 

At the end of January the four coalition parties agreed to review all 700 outstanding child refugee amnesty cases to head off a cabinet crisis. They also agreed to abolish the amnesty once these cases have been reassessed. 

The Netherlands had been criticised by both human rights groups and psychiatrists for deporting children, many of whom were born here, back to countries where they did not speak the language and which they had never visited. 

Officials have said they expect most of the children and their family members will now be allowed to remain in the Netherlands, taking the total to around 1,300 people ‘As soon as a decision has been taken, the child will informed if he or she is to be given a permanent residency permit,’ the IND said. 

Nemr and his family were told on April 1. 

‘The family is very thankful for all the support they have had,’ lawyer Gonny Meijering said in a statement. ‘The past few months have been very hectic and the family have asked to be left alone for a time.’

Armenian family at centre of 96-day church service can stay in the Netherlands

DutchNews, March 27, 2019

Hayarpi, Warduhi and Seyran Tamrazyan can now stay in the Netherlands.
Photo: Peter Wassing

An Armenian refugee family who went into hiding in a Dutch church to avoid deportation have been granted a residency permit after all. 

The Tamrazyans, a family of five, have received a residence permit from the Dutch government, the church said on Tuesday. 

The Bethel church in The Hague had staged round the clock services to protect the family from deportation after their last appeal for residency had been rejected. 

‘Thank you all for your support, your prayers, your candles,’ daughter Hayarpi  said on Twitter. 

In December, junior justice minister Mark Harbers said he would not use his discretion to allow the family to stay. The reason for the change of heart is unclear but is likely to be connected to the government’s decision to change the rules on asylum for well-rooted children after a u-turn by several coalition parties earlier this year. 

Some 650 volunteers were involved in keeping the service going round the clock and CNN, the New York Times and Time magazine were among the dozens of news organisations worldwide covering the progress of the family. 

The service stopped after 96 days in January, after the government brought in the new rules. 

Nine years 

The Tamrazyan family – mother, father and three children – lived at a refugee centre in Katwijk before moving into the church and have been in the Netherlands for nine years. 

Hayarpi, who studies econometrics at Tilburg University, said in a Twitter message in September that her family was granted refugee status at three separate court hearings but that the Dutch state went to appeal each time.

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Italian Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini (R) meets with five children

who helped to save other children during the March 20, 2019 Milan bus attack, saying

they deserve Italian nationality (AFP Photo/Tiziana FABI)

IND will review all child refugee amnesty cases by end 2019

DutchNews, February 11, 2019

Photo: Depositphotos.com

The immigration service IND said on Monday it will try to have reviewed all the appeals by some 700 refugee children facing deportation by the end of the year. 

The four coalition parties agreed last month that all the cases should be reviewed to head off a cabinet crisis. They also agreed to abolish the amnesty once these cases have been reassessed. 

The Netherlands has been criticised by both human rights groups and psychiatrists for deporting children, many of whom were born here, back to countries where they did not speak the language and which they had never visited. 

The issue came to a head in January and threatened to cause a serious rift in the cabinet after the Christian Democrats did a u-turn and said they supported giving the children the right to stay. 

Officials have said they expect most of the children and their family members will now be allowed to stay, taking the total to around 1,300 people 

‘As soon as a decision has been taken, the child will informed if he or she is to be given a permanent residency permit,’ the IND said. 

Unknown locations 

The IND has also opened up the appeal system to children who have not earlier applied to be included in the amnesty but who meet the criteria, which include living in the Netherlands for at least five years. 

Children who earlier lost their appeal and are living in ‘unknown locations’ are also eligible to fill in the forms. Both categories of children have until February 25 to be included. 

However, children who were deported while the coalition parties were working out the compromise agreement will not be allowed to return to the Netherlands, junior justice minister Mark Harbers confirmed on Monday.

Hayarpi, Warduhi and Seyran Tamrazyan  Photo: Peter Wassing

Related Article:

Church asylum to protect refugee children from deportation ends
Coalition reaches deal on child refugees, agrees to abolish amnesty

Church asylum to protect refugee children from deportation ends

DutchNews, January 30, 2019 - By Senay Boztas

Hayarpi, Warduhi and Seyran Tamrazyan  Photo: Peter Wassing

Ninety-six days of continuous sermons have ended at the Bethel church in The Hague, which pledged to protect an Armenian refugee family from deportation. 

This week the Dutch coalition government reached an agreement to give residency rights to 630 child refugees – some of whom were born in the Netherlands and had never been to their parents’ country of origin. 

In October 2018, the Tamrazyan family and their three children of 21, 19 and 15 were offered refuge by the Protestant church in The Hague for fear of deportation. 

In order to protect them, the church fell back a Dutch law originating in the Middle Ages, saying police may not enter a church during a service. With the help of 450 volunteer pastors of all denominations and lay preachers, they held continuous services for more than 13 weeks. 

The vigil, to raise the plight of other refugee families and especially children in the Netherlands, has now ended. 

‘The aim of the church asylum was to provide safety for a family that had exhausted all legal options, and a solution to families in similar situations,’ the Protestant church organisation said in a press release.

‘Now that 600 settled children and their parents can stay in the Netherlands, the result we wanted has been achieved.” 

Theo Hettema, chairman of the general council of the Protestant church in The Hague said that they were deeply thankful for the government’s decision on current cases.

‘We have kept up our hopes for months, and now those hopes have been realised,’ he said in the release. ‘We have been overwhelmed by all of the pastors, volunteers and others who helped with this church asylum.’ 

However, the organisation expressed concerns about future policy, since part of the accord was to scrap the so-called ‘child pardon’ in future while providing an amnesty for current cases. 

The last service in the vigil came to an end on Wednesday with a press conference, and a party is promised for all volunteers at a later date.

Related Article:

Coalition reaches deal on child refugees, agrees to abolish amnesty

Coalition split as CDA, D66, ChristenUnie call for change to child refugee amnesty

DutchNews, January 19, 2019

Photo: Peter de Ruiter/ UNHCR Brussel 

Three of the four Dutch coalition parties are now in favour of changes to the amnesty for well-rooted child refugees, saying the current situation is ‘untenable’. 

Some 400 children, many of whom were born in the Netherlands, are currently threatened with deportation because they don’t meet the terms of the amnesty, which was established in 2013. 

Campaigners and child rights groups say the rules – including the proviso that refugees cooperate with efforts to deport them – make it almost impossible to qualify. Very few children have benefited from the amnesty in the past five years. 

The Christian Democrats and D66 launched their campaign for change in interviews with the Dutch media on Saturday, and ChristenUnie leader Gert-Jan Segers then twittered his support. 

Dit is welkom. Meer dan welkom. pic.twitter.com/CQLCGH4IvP

— Gert-Jan Segers (@gertjansegers) January 19, 2019

‘We recognise that the situation is not sustainable,’ CDA parliamentarian Madeleine van Toorenburg told Radio 1 news. 

Currently, missing a meeting with the immigration service can be enough to show that the family has not cooperated, she said in the AD. 

She said the two parties were now calling for change following the publication of a report by 38 professors which said children faced with deportation undergo extreme stress. 

Majority support 

The change of heart means there is now majority support in parliament for a rethink, broadcaster NOS said. 

The coalition parties want junior immigration minister Mark Harbers to go through all 400 cases on the ‘reject’ pile  and use his discretionary powers to grant them the right to stay. 

Harbers, a member of the fourth coalition party, the VVD, told the NOS on Saturday afternoon that he had set up an independent commission to look at all aspects of the problem. ‘It is no secret that there are different thoughts about this subject within the coalition,’ he said. 

‘That is why we have made agreements and they are in the coalition accord. That is my guide.’ 

Coalition agreement 

The VVD has always resisted changes to the amnesty rules. Prime minister Mark Rutte, also from the VVD, has not yet commented on the change of heart by his coalition partners but VVD parliamentarian Malik Azmani said that ‘everyone is free to think what they like’.

‘We assume that the agreements made in the coalition agreement will be respected,’ his spokesman told the AD. 

Petition 

Television presenter Tim Hofman, who has gathered over 250,000 signatures on a petition calling for a rethink, said: ‘The CDA has woken up. Godamm, what good news, unbelievable.’ 

Hofman was spurred into action following attempts to deport two Armenian children to Armenia, even though they had never lived there and did not speak the language. Howick and Lili were eventually granted residency rights. 

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On a TV set in an overcrowded Bangkok detention centre, refugees closely followed Saudi woman #RahafMohammed al-Qunun's quest for resettlement as the 18-year-old asylum-seeker's case spurred hopes of a major policy turn from Thailand https://t.co/2IsTSpPeE4

— AFP news agency (@AFP) January 21, 2019

Bahrain activist, deported by the Netherlands, has been arrested

DutchNews, January 7, 2019

The IND offices in The Hague. Photo: Depositphotos.com 

A refugee from Bahrain who was deported by the Netherlands last October was arrested on his return and has been held in detention since then, Amnesty International and refugee group VluchtelingenWerk said on Monday. 

Ali Mohamed al-Showaikh was arrested on terrorism charges and there is ‘strong evidence’ that he has been tortured since his arrest, the human rights campaign groups said. 

They have now started a letter-writing campaign urging the king of Bahrain to made sure Al-Showaikh has proper access to a lawyer and to release him from jail unless he is ‘promptly charged before a court with a recognisable criminal offence in accordance with international law’. 

Amnesty says Al-Showaikh, who is now 27, took part in an anti-government demonstration in 2011 and fled to the Netherlands in 2017. His brother had already left because of his own political activities. 

Vluchtelingenwerk says the Netherlands should stop deporting failed refugees to Bahrain until it is clear what is happening to Al-Showaikh. 

The Dutch immigration service IND, which is responsible for assessing asylum claims, has declined to comment on the case.